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::°ndro    Irricv.:  .ic  -let 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT   LOS  ANGELES 


ROBERT  ERNEST  COWAN 


I 


ALESSANDRO 
IRRIGATION  DISTRICT, 

California : 


Its  Physical,  Engineering  and 
Business  Problems  ^  Conditions, 

WM.  HAM.  HALL. 

Its  Legal  Status, 

WILSON  &  WILSON, 


BACON  &  COMPANY,  SAN  FRANCISCO 

Printers.  October,  1891. 


ALESSANDRO 
IRRIGATION  DISTRICT, 

California : 


Its  Physical,  Engineering  and 
Business  Problems  ^  Conditions, 

WM.  HAM.  HALL. 

Its  Legal  Status, 

WILSON  &  WILSON. 


BACON  &  COMPANY  SAN  FRANCISCO, 

Printers.  October,  1891. 


Introduction. 


INTRODUCTION. 


With  the  multiplication  of  Irrigation  Districts  in  California, 
all  equally  authorized  by  law  to  issue  and  sell  bonds,  came  the 
necessity  at  financial  centers  for  definite  and  authentic  infor- 
mation, well  arranged  and  presented,  concerning  each.  The 
bankers  of  San  Francisco,  to  whose  judgment  and  opinion  con- 
stant appeal  was  being  made  by  contemplating  bond  purchasers 
and  financial  agents  abroad,  and  who  were  daily  being  applied 
to  for  information  about  these  districts  and  their  securities, 
could  not  take  the  time,  or  incur  the  expense  for,  or  assume 
the  entire  responsibility  of,  the  examinations  needed  to  get  at 
the  facts  on  which  to  base  their  judgments,  or  from  which  to- 
enlighten  their  correspondents. 

This  condition  of  affairs  was  proving  a  serious  drawback  to 
\  placing  the  district  securities.  It  had  to  be  remedied.  A 
\  number  of  representative  Irrigationists  came  to  San  Francisco, 
=  and  the  subjoined  correspondence  was  the  practical  result  of 
5  many  meetings  and  interviews  with  representative  bankers. 

The  engineer's  reports  and  the  attorneys '  opinion  consequent 
\  upon  this  action  are  designed  for  the  information  of  financial 
|  agents  and  contemplating  investors  in  the  securities  of  districts, 
and  have  not  been  sought  as  promotion  papers  in  the  interests 
of  districts.     Necessarily,  some  district  enterprises  are  good 
from  the  business  and  engineering  standpoint,  and  will  be  so 
spoken  of.     It  may  be  that  some  are  bad, — and,  if  so,  it  is  ex- 
pected they  will  be  thus  reported. 

J.   W.    NANCE, 
President  State  Association  of  Irrigation  Districts. 


298958 


Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 


CORRESPONDENCE    WITH    LEADING    FINANCIERS 
OF  SAN   FRANCISCO. 


PALACE  HOTEL,  SAN  FRANCISCO, 

June  12,  1891. 
THOMAS  BROWN,  ESQ., 
IGNATZ  STEINHART,  ESQ., 
LLOYD  TEVIS,  ESQ., 
A.  MONTPELLIER,  ESQ., 
R.  C.  WOOLWORTH,  ESQ., 
And  others. 

GENTLEMEN  : 

In  their  endeavors  to  establish  credit  before  the  financial 
world,  the  Irrigation  District  authorities  in  this  State  have 
•come  to  realize  the  necessity  for  having  the  several  district 
schemes  and  organizations  reported  upon  by  experts  whose 
qualifications  and  good  standing  would  be  vouched  for  by  those 
persons  controlling  financial  matters  in  San  Francisco — the 
recognized  center  of  business  and  money  for  California. 

Each  district  has  had  its  engineers  and  its  attorneys,  in 
whom  the  respective  district  authorities  have  all  due  confi- 
dence ;  but  the  districts  are  many,  and  the  experts  of  engineer- 
ing who  have  participated  in  the  work  are  several  for  each 
district. 

The  advisability  of  centering  upon  some  one  engineer  to  re- 
view the  labors  of  the  many  heretofore  engaged,  for  the  in- 
formation of  the  financial  public,  suggested  by  yourselves  to 
several  district  representatives  a  short  while  ago,  has  been 
brought  home  to  the  district  authorities.  Speaking  for  many 
with  whom  I  have  communicated,  they  generally  see  it,  and  ap- 
prove of  it. 


Correspondence.  5 

Now,  in  order  to  expedite  matters,  and  to  be  able  to  suggest 
to  the  several  District  Boards  some  definite  line  of  action,  and 
lay  before  them  the  name  of  an  engineer  whom  you  and  other 
controllers  of  local  financial  sentiment  will  recognize  as  of  good 
professional  and  personal  standing,  I,  as  President  of  the  As- 
sociation of  Irrigation  Districts,  profiting  by  the  personal  inter- 
views had  with  you  by  representatives  of  our  districts,  address 
you  the  following  inquiry  : 

In  case  the  respective  Boards  of  Directors  of  Irrigation  Dis- 
tricts in  this  State  employ  Mr.  Wm.  Ham.  Hall,  consulting 
engineer,  to  report  on  the  questions  of  water  supply,  plans  and 
estimates  for  works,  suitability  of  lands,  and  generally  the 
physical,  engineering  and  business  questions  involved  in  each 
district  scheme,  giving  him  all  desired  latitude  for  thorough- 
ness of  work,  will  you  thereafter,  when  in  the  course  of  busi- 
ness you  are  applied  to  for  information  concerning  the  standing 
of  such  district,  reply  that  its  affairs  have  been  examined  by  an 
engineer  competent,  in  your  opinion,  for  the  task,  and  familiar 
with  the  subject  in  this  State,  and  a  man  whom  you  believe  to 
be  trustworthy  for  the  service ;  in  other  words,  that,  in  your 
opinion,  he  is  an  engineer  on  whose  reports  careful  investors 
may  rely  as  much  as  on  those  of  any  engineer  in  this  line  of 
business  ? 

Very  respectfully  yours, 


President  State  Association  of  Irrigation  Districts. 


ToJ.  W.  NANCE,  ESQ., 

President  State  Association  Irrigation  Districts. 
SIR: 

We  have  read  your  foregoing  letter  of  June  12,  1891,  and  we 
hereby  answer  in  the  affirmative  relative  to  the  inquiries  re- 
specting Mr.  Hall. 


6  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

In  this  connection  we  would  suggest  that  it  might  be  well 
for  your  Association  to  employ  some  competent  attorney  to  in- 
vestigate the  status  of  the  several  districts,  and  assist  Mr.  Hall 
in  his  work. 

Respectfully  yours, 


Correspondence, 


NOTE. — As  will  be  seen,  the  above  represent  personal  signatures.  The 
gentlemen  were  addressed  individually,  and  not  as  presidents  and  man- 
agers of  banks  ;  and  so,  in  replying,  they  signed  for  themselves  and  not 
for  the  banks.  But  in  order  that  the  value  of  this  certificate  may  be 
known  to  those  persons  not  familiar  with  San  Francisco  banking  organ- 
ization, the  following  memorandum  of  identification  is  appended  ; 

MR.  THOMAS  BROWN  is  Cashier  and  Manager  of  the  Bank  of  California. 

MR.  LI.OYD  TEVIS  is  President  and  Manager  of  the  Bank  of  Wells, 
Fargo  &  Co. 

MR.  IGNATZ  STEINHART  is  the  Manager  of  the  Anglo-Californian 
Bank. 

MR.  A.  MONTPELUER  is  Cashier  and  Manager  of  the  Grangers'  Bank 
of  California. 

MR.  R.  C.  WOOI,\VORTH  is  President  and  Manager  of  the  Crocker- 
Woolworth  Bank. 

MR.  I.  W.  HEI^MAN  is  President  and  Manager  of  the  Nevada  Bank 
of  California. 

MR.  ROBERT  J.  TOBIN  is  Secretary  and  Manager  of  the  Hibernia  Sav- 
ings and  Loan  Society. 

MR.  L.  GoTTiG  is  President  and  Manager  of  the  German  Savings  and 
Loan  Society. 

MR.  JAMES  G.  FAIR  is  President  of  the  Mutual  Savings  Bank. 


8  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

MR.  S.  P.  YOUNG  is  Secretary  and  Manager  of  the  California  Safe 
Deposit  and  Trust  Co. 

MR.  ALBERT  MILLER  is  President  and  Manager  of  the  San  Francisco 
Savings  Union. 

MR.  DANIEL  MEYER  is  an  individual  Banker,  and  extensive  Dealer  in 
Securities. 


Letter  of  Transmitted. 


LETTER  OF  TRANSMITTAL. 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL.,  Oct.  ist,  1891. 
MR.  J.  W.  NANCE, 

President  State  Association,  Irrigation  Districts, 

SIR: 

In  compliance  with  your  request,  and  by  authority  of  a  reso- 
lution passed  by  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Alessandro 
Irrigation  District  on  August  4th,  last  past,  I  herewith  submit 
to  you  a  report  ' '  on  the  questions  of  water-supply,  plans  and 
estimates  for  works,  suitability  of  lands  for  irrigation,  and 
generally  the  engineering  and  business  questions  involved  in 
the  construction  of  the  works ' '  for  the  Allesandro  Irrigation 
District,  in  this  State. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

WM.    HAM.    HAIvL, 

Consulting   Civil  Engineer^ 


Ales-andro  Irrigation    Dtstrut. 


CONTENTS  OF    ENGINEER'S  REPORT. 


DIVISIONS  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 

1.  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

2.  Adaptability  to  Irrigation. 

3.  Necessity  for  Irrigation. 

4.  Water  Supply. 

5.  Water  Duty  and  Delivery. 

6.  Works  and  Co«ts. 

7.  District  Valuation. 

8.  BondeH  Indebtedness. 

9.  Present  Financial  Condition. 

10.  Future  Financial  Outlook. 

11.  Additional  Bond  Issue. 

12.  Right-of-Way  Matters. 

13.  Contracts  and  Contract  Rates. 

14.  Cost  of  this  Irrigation. 

15.  Character  of  this  Work. 

16.  Condition  of  the  Work. 

17.  Probable  Irrigation  Effect. 

18.  Litigation  and  Local  Sentiment. 

19.  Conclusion. 


LIST  OF  EXHIBITS. 

I.  Cost  Statement— B.  V.  I.  Co.  Work  (Eng'r  in  Chg.) 

II.  Bond  Redemption  Illustration. 

III.  Financial  Statement  (Treasurer). 

IV.  Assessment  and  Tax  Statement  (Assessor). 

V.    Bond  Issue  and  Interest  Statement  (Secretary). 


MATTER  APPENDED. 

A.  Notes  to  the  Report. 

B.  Water-Right  Agreement  and  Certificate. 

C.  Closing  Letter  — Other  District  Enterprises. 


Engineer's  Jteport. 


REPORT. 


ALESSANDRO  IRRIGATION  DISTRICT. 

Irrigation  in  Southern  California  was  begun  by  the  Spanish 
Mission  priests  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  and 
through  the  labor  of  their  Indian  converts  or  disciples.  The 
Roman  Catholic  Church  in  the  Mexican  province  of  California 
was  shorn  of  temporal  power  in  1833 ;  its  cultivated  lands  were 
taken  from  it,  and  afterwards  granted  to  political  and  military 
favorites.  These  lands  were  notably  the  irrigated  orchards, 
vineyards  and  fields  at  the  mission  stations  of  San  Fernando, 
San  Gabriel,  San  Bernardino,  San  Juan  Capristano,  San  Jacin- 
to,  San  Diego,  and  perhaps  several  others.  One  city  had  been 
founded  also  on  the  basis  of  irrigation  industry, — the  Pueblo 
of  Los  Angeles,  in  1781.  Here  the  irrigation  waters  were 
made  community  property  from  the  start,  and  lands  were  ap- 
portioned to  the  settlers. 

The  means  for  construction  at  command  of  these  early  ir- 
rigators  were,  of  course,  crude  and  narrowly  limited.  Their 
irrigation  experience  was  equally  restricted  and  methods  nec- 
essarily primitive.  Their  lack  of  knowledge  of  the  soils  and 
climate  too  placed  them  at  great  disadvantage.  Nature  seemed 
to  say  that  the  low-lying  lands  in  the  valleys  were  the  best, 
for  these  maintained  a  verdure,  an  herbage  for  the  support  of 
stock,  timber  affording  shade  and  yielding  firewood.  The  high- 
er lauds  in  the  valleys,  and  generally  the  lands  in  the  higher 
valleys  (not  those  in  the  hills  or  mountains),  on  the  contrary, 
were  desert- like  ;  they  produced  only  thorny  cacti,  sticky  grease- 
wood  andjjw<fo  santa,  white  sage  and  black  sage,  occasionally 
bunch  grass.  Cattle  could  live,  to  be  sure,  on  these  dry  plains 
and  bench  lands  —  that  is,  a  few  cattle  to  the  square  mile, — 
but  the  rolling  lands  and  hills  and  the  small  valleys  between 
these  were  the  real  grazing  grounds. 


i  2  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

The  low  lands  of  the  large  valleys  were  moistened  by  natural 
irrigation  from  springs  and  streams.  But  they  were  very  often 
"low"  only  by  comparison  with  other  lands,  or  as  respected 
the  local  water-supply.  In  actual  elevation  above  the  sea,  the 
so-called  "low  lands"  were  frequently  high,  when  compared 
to  lands  which  themselves  were  high  as  regards  ground  moist- 
ure, water-supply  and  command  of  irrigation  as  it  then  was, 
in  neighboring  localities. 

Now,  aside  from  commonplace  explanations  of  this  state- 
ment, Southern  California  affords  a  number  of  familiar  exam- 
ples which  in  other  countries  would  not  be  commonplace.  The 
location  of  streams  and  water-supplies  in  this  country  is  not 
governed  by  all  the  rules  that  control  elsewhere.  That  is  to 
say,  streams  burst  forth  in  seemingly  unnatural  places, —  as  on 
wide  open  plains,  high  up  on  hillsides,  or  on  the  top  of  hills, 
or  at  the  top  edges  of  table  lands,  instead  of  in  relatively  low 
places,  topographically,  and  at  the  base  of  slopes  or  in  main 
canons,  as  is  generally  the  case  in  other  countries. 

The  low  lands,  then,  in  Southern  California  were  the  natu- 
rally moist  lands,  and  those  easiest  irrigated  from  springs  and 
streams.  The  old  Mexican  population  thought  these  were  the 
best.  The  Mormons,  who  came  into  San  Bernardino  early  in 
the  "  fifties,"  and  were  the  representatives  of  the  next  stage  of 
local  irrigation  development,  also  thought  so.  The  early  Amer- 
ican settlers  took  up  with  this  opinion,  and  it  became  difficult 
to  dislodge. 


Matters  ran  on  thus  until  about  1870,  when  some  speculators 
in  colony  enterprise  took  the  notion  that  the  higher  lands  were 
good — better  than  those  locally  low  and  moist,  or  easily  irrigat- 
ed. At  any  rate  they  were  very  cheap,  and  some  of  them  could 
be  irrigated  by  building  better  and  more  expensive  irrigation 
works.  Then  followed  the  beginning,  at  Pasadena  and  at  Riv- 
erside, of  the  systematic  development,  by  irrigation  on  a  large 
scale,  of  the  mesa,  or  high  plain  lands,  whose  products  now 
place  Southern  California  in  the  front  rank  of  horticultural 
regions. 

The  development  has  been  one  of  works  and  one  of  culture 


Engineer's  Report.  13 

methods.  Its  succeeding  notable  steps  have  each  been  higher 
in  class  of  works  ;  followed  by  higher,  more  perfect,  culture 
methods  ;  and  each  has  chosen  higher  and  dryer  lands,  relative- 
ly, for  its  field, 

The  San  Jacinto  plain,  lying  partly,  each,  in  San  Diego  and 
San  Bernardino  counties,  is  one  of  the  latest  scenes  of  this 
march  in  horticultural  progress.  The  Alessandro  Irrigation 
District  occupies  one  end  of  this  plain — about  its  highest  lands. 
The  works  which  are  to  supply  it  are  of  the  highest  class  yet 
attempted  for  extended  irrigation.  Presumably,  the  culture 
methods  to  be  employed  will  be  profited  by  the  experiences 
which  have  preceded  it  in  this  fruitful  and  progressive  South- 
ern California  region. 


' '  The  valley  of  the  San  Jacinto  consists  of  an  extensive  plain, 
'one  thousand  four  hundred  to  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
'  feet  above  the  sea,  covering  some  two  hundred  thousand 
'  acres,  wonderfully  uniform  in  surface,  of  gray  and  reddish 
'  soil,  nearly  surrounded  by  mountains,  and  dotted  by  irregu- 
'  lar  conical  hills  and  bald  tables  of  granite,  standing  alone 
'  like  islands  in  the  sea.  From  a  rim  of  this  plateau  one  may 
'  look  north  and  northwest  down  upon  the  Riverside  plain  and 
'  the  San  Bernardino  Valley.  To  the  northeast,  east  and 
1  southeast,  the  peaks,  spurs,  and  outlying  ridges  that  form  the 
'  San  Jacinto  system  of  mountains,  whose  highest  peak  is 
'  eleven  thousand  feet  in  altitude,  interpose  a  lofty  barrier  be- 
'  tweeii  the  valley  and  the  Colorado  desert.  To  the  south  lies 
'  Smith's  Mountain,  a  high  east-and-west  ridge.  To  the  west 
'  and  southwest  are  the  low  Temescal  and  Pinacarte  Moun- 
'  tains."  (Report  of  the  State  Irrigation  Engineer,  California ; 
Part  II,  Irrigation  in  Southern  California,  pp.  47-48.) 

The  northern  end  of  the  San  Jacinto  plain,  sloping  from  1800 
to  1450  feet  above  the  sea,  is  in  an  almost  complete  amphithe- 
atre of  hills.  These  rise  six  or  seven  hundred  feet  above  its 
higher  edge,  on  the  north,  but  at  the  western  side  sink  to  a  mere 
rolling-land  appearance,  as  viewed  from  the  plain  itself. 

The  Alessandro  Irrigation  District  occupies  the  plain  and 
sloping  lands  in  this  comparatively  elevated  plateau.  It  is 
twelve  miles  in  length  frcm  east  to  west,  and  seven  miles  wide 
on  north  and  south  lines,  and  contains  about  25, 500  acres,  or 
v  ery  nearly  40  square  miles. 


14  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

The  boundaries  follow  section  and  quarter-section  lines 
around  the  available  and  desirable  lands,  without  strict  regard 
to  grade  contours — for  the  irrigation  water-supply  is  brought 
to  and  through  it  under  pressure,  and  irregularities  of  eleva- 
tion are  thus,  in  water  delivery,  practically  eliminated. 


This  district  lies  across  the  northern  end  of  the  Ferris  Dis- 
trict, heretofore  reported  upon,  and  easterly  therefrom,  and  is 
wholly  in  San  Bernardino  County,  as  will  be  seen  by  the  gen- 
eral map. 

Riverside,  one  of  the  very  foremost  horticultural  neighbor- 
hoods in  America,  lies  west  of  Alessandro,  on  a  lower  plain, 
and  at  the  western  foot  of  the  intervening  hill  range,  from  two 
to  six  miles  distant. 

Redlands,  another  famous  horticultural  development  of  the 
region,  is  on  a  somewhat  similar  mesa  plain  sloping  northward, 
at  about  the  elevation  of  the  middle  part  of  the  Alessandro 
tract,  just  over  another  range  of  hills,  and  six  miles  north  from 
the  eastern  part  of  the  district. 

Alessandro  District  is  all  upon  one  plain,  sloping  south  to- 
ward a  basin  whose  immediate  bottom  is  occupied  by  a  great 
rugged  cluster  of  granite  hills — that  is,  the  plain  slopes  from 
the  surrounding  hills  to  the  base  of  this  interior  group  in  the 
San  Jacinto  Valley. 

There  is  a  low  trough  outlet  on  the  west  of  the  central  hills, 
which  goes  down  through  Ferris  District  to  the  San  Jacinto 
river,  as  described  in  a  former  report  ;  and  another  on  the  east 
which  leads  to  the  basin  of  San  Jacinto  lake. 

The  Alessandro  plain  slopes  at  rates  varying  between  10  and 
100  feet  per  mile.  There  are  several  outstanding  granite  hills 
in  it,  covering  altogether  about  600  acres  of  area. 


A  petition  for  the  formation  of  the  Alessandro  Irrigation 
District  was,  as  required  by  law,  presented  to  the  Board  of 
Supervisors  of  San  Bernardino  County,  on  December  ist,  1890, 
and,  there  being  no  objection,  it  was  granted.  The  statutory 


Engineer's  Report.  15 

election  was  held  on  January  3rd,  1891,  whereat  the  first  Board 
of  Directors  was  chosen  and  the  organization  completed.  The 
area  embraced  was  about  25,550  acres,  and  there  have  been  no 
changes  of  boundary  or  of  acreage  since. 

Two  maps  are  found  herewith  ;  one,  the  larger  scale,  show- 
ing the  topography  and  land  subdivisions  and  irrigation  sys- 
tem of  works  of  the  district  itself;  and  another,  the  smaller 
scale  general  map,  showing  the  location  and  relation  of  the 
district  to  the  older  and  better  known  irrigation  neighborhoods 
of  San  Bernardino  and  San  Diego  counties,  in  its  region. 


The  value  of  a  security  depends  not  only  on  the  honesty  of 
the  debtor  and  the  firmness  of  his  binding  to  the  creditor,  but 
upon  his  ability  to  pay  it  when  the  time  comes.  This  ability 
will  depend,  in  the  case  of  irrigation  districts,  on  the  success  of 
irrigation  industry  in  them.  The  bondholder  will  not  want  to 
take  the  lands  of  taxpayers  in  a  district,  pledged  to  him  under 
the  law,  or  to  sell  them  for  taxes  to  satisfy  his  claim,  even  if 
they  are  worth  more  than  sufficient  in  the  real  estate  market. 
He  will  want  his  interest  and  principal.  He  is  as  much  con- 
cerned from  the  beginning  in  the  success  of  irrigation  in  a  dis- 
trict as  its  taxpayers  are. 

The  success  of  irrigation,  commercially,  depends,  in  no 
small  degree,  on  the  necessity  for  it,  as  well  as  on  the  suitabil- 
ity of  the  site  and  climate.  And  the  measure  of  this  success 
will  be  enhanced  or  modified  for  each  district,  by  the  degree  of 
adaptability  of  its  conditions,  compared  to  those  of  the  various 
districts  being  developed  at  the  same  time.  The  promotion  of 
an  irrigation  district  is  an  enterprise  governed  by  business  prin- 
ciples, just  as  much  as  a  commercial  venture  on  the  part  of 
any  individual.  There  is  necessarily  a  rivalry  between  dis- 
tricts in  process  of  development  at  the  same  time.  It  cannot  be 
otherwise.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  district  best  adapted 
to  irrigation  in  soil  and  climate  will  succeed  ;  while  if  the  mar- 
ket for  irrigated  lands  or  for  irrigation  products  is  overstocked, 
the  poorest  district  will  be  first  to  fail. 

Bondholders  and  investors  abroad  recognize  these  facts. 
They  want  to  know  beforehand  whether  the  case  is  one  favora- 


1 6  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

ble  to  success.  Hence,  I  take  up  the  question  of  adaptability 
to  irrigation  and  necessity  for  it,  in  the  case  of  Alessandro  Dis- 
trict. To 'those  acquainted  with  the  southern  country,  and 
with  these  lands  and  with  this  neighborhood,  it  may  seem 
.absurd  to  go  into  such  questions  for  this  case.  Be  it  remem- 
bered by  these,  that  a  report  of  this  character  should  be  suffic- 
iently full  to  meet  every  possible  question,  within  its  scope, 
which  can  be  raised  by  those  who  know  practically  nothing  of 
California  or  her  industries.  Irrigation  district  securities  are 
seeking  a  market  in  Switzerland,  for  instance.  It  is,  there- 
fore, in  part  the  Swiss  demand  for  information  on  the  subject 
that  is  to  be  met,  rather  than  any  local  demand  in  California. 

ADAPTABILITY  TO  IRRIGATION. 

In  my  opinion,  there  are  no  equally  large  areas  of  land  in 
: Southern  California  materially  better  adapted,  in  surface  and 
soils,  to  cultivations  of  high  class,  and  by  irrigation  methods 
suited  thereto  and  of  the  highest  order,  than  some  portions  of 
the  San  Jacinto  plateau  plain. 

For  warmth  of  exposure,  good  drainage  slope  and  richness 
•of  soil,  a  very  large  part  of  the  Alessandro  District  ranks  with 
the  best.  In  smoothness  of  surface,  also,  as  a  general  thing, 
these  lands  are  favorable  to  economical  preparation  for  irriga- 
tion, and  succeeding  cultivation  thereby. 

As  already  quoted,  the  State  Irrigation  Engineer  reported 
the  San  Jacinto  plateau  valley  as  being  ' '  wonderfully  uniform 
in  surface";  and  on  another  page  of  the  report  he  wrote  : 
"Asa  general  thing,  the  soil  of  these  valleys  is  excellent,  and 
for  the  most  part  is  directly  traceable  to  the  disintegration  of 
granite." 

This  description  is  applicable,  verbatim,  to  the  lands  of  a 
large  part  of  Alessandro  District.  With  the  exception  of  about 
600  acres  embracing  some  outstanding  granite  knolls  in 
the  plain,  and  1,000  to  1,500  acres,  somewhat  cut  by  ravines 
and  drainage  ways,  found  principally  along  the  northern 
edge  of  the  district,  and  bordering  the  hills  that  lie  behind 
it,  we  do  not  find  much  more  evenly  unbroken  and  favorable 
slopes  for  the  class  of  irrigation  here  contemplated,  than  those 
of  this  district. 


Engineers  Report.  17 

There  is  some  knolly  or  "  hog- wallow  "  land  also,  that  re- 
quires more  expense  in  preparing  for  irrigation  than  the  smooth- 
est and  most  evenly  surfaced  plains ;  but,  on  the  whole,  the 
surface  configuration  of  the  district  is  all  that  could  be  expected 
of  so  large  an  area  of  rich-soiled  fruit  land  in  Southern  Califor- 
nia. Lands  of  such  soils  and  adaptabilities  here,  as  a  general 
thing,  are  more  cut  up  by  ravines  and  washes,  and  decidedly 
more  rough  and  rugged  of  surface  between  these  larger  irreg- 
ularities, than  we  find  to  be  the  case  with  those  of  Alessandro 
District.  [See  Note  i.] 


Standing  on  lands  at  the  western  end  of  this  district,  one 
looks  immediately  upon  the  plain,  but  two  to  five  miles  away, 
and  several  hundred  feet  below,  which  more  than  all  others, 
perhaps,  has  made  for  Southern  California  its  reputation  as  an 
orange  and  lemon  growing  region,  and  has  notably  contributed, 
also,  to  its  record  in  the  line  of  the  olive,  fig,  and  raisin  indus- 
tries. It  is  Riverside. 

Just  as  in  case  of  Ferris  District,  lying  opposite  the  southern 
end  of  the  Riverside  plain,  so  Alessandro  District,  lying  oppo- 
site the  middle  and  northern  part  of  Riverside,  can  claim  to 
have  soils  of  almost  identical  origin  and  formation,  and  conse- 
quent adaptabilities,  with  it.  As  Riverside  surface  soils  were 
in  no  small  measure  made  by  washings  from  the  western  face 
of  a  low  granite  hill  range,  so  the  surface  soils  of  Alessaudro 
District  find  their  origin  in  washes  from  the  eastern  face  of  the 
same  range,  and  southern  slope  of  its  north  and  east  continua- 
tion. As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  Alessandro  mesa,  on  the  eastern 
slope,  is  so  near  the  crest  of  the  hill  range  whose  western  foot- 
ing is  in  Riverside,  that  some  natural  canon  drainage-ways 
have  cut  through  the  hills  from  this  eastern  plateau,  and  wash- 
ings from  it  have  for  ages  been  annually  contributed  direct  to 
the  soils  of  the  lower  orange-growing  plain.  Alessandro  soils, 
then,  have  not  only  in  great  measure  an  origin  in  common  with 
those  of  Riverside,  but  are  in  some  measure  themselves  the 
origin  of  Riverside's  fertility. 

Of  the  Alessandro  District,  14,000  to  15,000  acres  have  soils 
practically  of  the  "red  mesa"  kind.  These  cover  the  main 


1 8  Alessandro  Irrigation  District, 

portion  and  the  western  end  of  the  district.  The  slopes  at  the 
eastern  end,  to  the  extent  of  3,000  to  4,000  acres,  are  of  rich, 
fine-sandy  loam,  gray  and  light  drab  in  color.  The  lower  and 
flatter  lands  towards  the  southern  edge  (and  opposite  the  mid- 
dle part  of  the  district,  rather  than  at  the  extreme  east  and 
west  ends,)  are  heavier  and  darker  in  soil,  and  in  a  limited  de- 
gree have  an  adobe  nature  for  i,oooto  2,000  acres  of  area. 
The  balance  of  the  acreage  is  made  up,  for  the  most  part,  of 
various  admixtures  of  these  more  distinctive  soils,  and  in  small 
part  of  recent  gray  colored,  coarse  washings  from  the  adjacent 
granite  hills. 

The  ' '  red  mesa  "  soils,  as  a  general  rule,  are  less  heavy  and 
distinctly  marked  in  character,  than  are  those  of  Riverside  and 
Redlands,  but  they  are  at  least  equally  well  adapted  to  hand- 
ling under  irrigation,  and  apparently  as  suitable  to  the  most 
desired  horticultural  growths.  Large  areas  of  these  soils  closely 
resemble  and  are  doubtless  almost  identical  in  composition  with 
the  admixtures  of  recent  granite  wash  with  the  mesa  clay,  found 
along  the  eastern  and  higher  parts  of  the  Riverside  plain,  and 
towards  its  southern  end. 

The  rich,  sandy  loams  of  the  eastern  end  of  the  district  have 
a  local  origin.  They  are  on  the  southern  footings  of  a  hill 
range,  that  has  from  its  northern  and  eastern  flanks  sent  a  sim- 
ilar alluvial  detritus  down  to  the  neighborhood  of  Old  San  Ber- 
nardino, where  is  another  belt  of  specially  productive  country, 
now  much  grown  to  fruits  and  vines,  under  irrigation.  The 
ruling  kinds  of  soil  in  this  Alessandro  District,  therefore,  have 
the  ingredients  of  the  distinct  classes  of  fruit  lands  already  well 
proven  at  two  of  the  best  known  neighborhoods  in  Southern 
California. 


The  slopes  of  the  Alessandro  plain  are,  in  my  opinion,  spe- 
cially well  adapted  to  cultivation  in  citrus  fruits,  and  also  to  the 
olive,  fig,  and  vine.  There  may  be  some  question  of  the  ad- 
aptability of  the  lower  and  flatter  lands  of  the  district,  to  the 
extent  of  several  thousand  acres,  to  the  growing  of  citrus  fruit, 
and  some  other  of  the  less  hardy  varieties  of  other  fruits. 
There  are  always  such  differences  in  every  locality.  The 
warmer,  better  drained  slopes,  locally,  are  always  more  desir- 


Engineer's  Report.  19 

able  than  flatter  land  at  their  footings,  for  the  more  delicate 
growths.  So  far  as  soil  composition  and  surface  form  is  con- 
cerned, about  all  of  Alessandro  District  is  good  fruit  land,  but 
some  parts  are  better  than  others. 

The  soils  are  deep,  rich,  and  of  character  to  take  water  free- 
ly, without  being  wastefully  absorptive.  There  are  no  large 
districts  adapted  to  this  class  of  production,  materially  more 
free  from  waste  land  than  the  Alessandro. 


NECESSITY   FOR   IRRIGATION. 

Alessandro  District  is  in  the  undisputed  zone  of  irrigation  in 
Southern  California.  There  are  no  differences  of  opinion  as  to 
the  necessity  of  artificial  watering  of  all  lands  in  this  region, 
except  some  small  areas  made  moist  by  percolation  from  ad- 
jacent streams  and  springs,  and  except  lands  in  some  higher 
mountain  valleys.  And,  moreover,  the  naturally  moist  lands 
in  Southern  California  are  not  suited  to  the  growth  of  the  high- 
er horticultural  products. 

The  orange,  lemon,  lime,  olive,  fig  and  vine,  especially  re- 
fuse to  thrive  and  bear  well  on  moist  lands.  They  soon  be- 
come diseased  ;  the  crops  are  spoiled  ;  the  plants  are  short 
lived  ;  the  fruit,  never  of  fine  quality.  Some  small  areas  in 
high  mountain  valleys,  or  on  elevated  plateaus  in  this  region, 
produce  good  apples,  pears  and  other  hardy  fruits,  without  ir- 
rigation. But  these  localities  are  subjected  to  decidedly  great- 
er rainfall  and  cooler  atmosphere,  than  those  at  elevations  that 
admit  of  citrus  and  other  delicate  fruit  growing. 

The  citrus  fruit  belt  of  Southern  California  is  above  all  others 
the  irrigation  zone  of  that  country.  If  we  had  to  localize  it, 
narrowly  but  continuously,  it  might  be  described  as  a  strip 
from  5  to  10  miles  in  width  ;  following  the  southern  and  west- 
ern footing  of  the  Sierra  Madre,  San  Bernardino,  San  Jacinto, 
and  San  Diego  Mountains,  through  I^os  Angeles,  San  Bernar- 
dino, and  San  Diego  Counties  ;  and  lying  between  400  and  1500 
feet  above  the  sea  at  its  western  end ;  between  500  and  2500, 
in  its  middle  course  ;  and  from  almost  sea  level  to  1500  feet  of 
elevation  at  its  southern  extremity. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  belt  does  not  include  all  the  success- 


20  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

ful  citrus  growing  neighborhoods  in  the  great  region  through 
which  it  sweeps  ;  but  it  embraces  the  largest  and  most  success- 
ful. Neither  is  it  true  that  all  neighborhoods  in  it  are  suitable 
to  this  class  of  culture  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  really  favorable 
places  are  simply  scattered  in  series  through  it. 

The  Alessandro  District  is  just  at  the  middle  part  of  this  belt 
where  it  is  farthest  from  the  sea  ;  is  subjected  to  the  most 
drying  and  hottest  atmosphere,  and  receives  almost  its  least 
amount  of  rainfall.  [See  Xote  2.] 

It  is  in  the  region  where  the  irrigation  ditch  so  frequently  is 
a  demarkation  between  extreme  apparent  sterility  and  intense 
and  show}'  productiveness.  On  good  soils,  irrigation  here 
maintains  full  populations  in  luxury,  and  with  most  pleasing 
surroundings,  in  localities  where  man  could  not  exist  without 
such  artificial  using  of  water  in  agriculture,  or  without  help 
from  elsewhere.  [See  Note  4.] 

Differing  somewhat  from  lands  of  its  neighbor,  the  Ferris  Dis- 
trict, there  would,  on  account  of  soil  conditions,  be  an  absolute 
necessity  for  irrigation  on  lands  of  the  Alessandro  District,  quite 
generally,  even  if  subjected  to  a  materially  greater  rainfall  than 
the  region  receives.  The  heavier,  "  red  mesa"  character  which 
the  larger  area  of  Alessandro  lands  presents,  carries  with  it  a 
lower  degree  of  absorptiveness  and  power  to  retain  moisture. 
A  materially  larger  part  of  rainfall  on  the  greater  portion  of 
Alessandro  lands  is  and  always  will  be  shed  off  as  surface  drain- 
age. Soils  of  this  character  cannot  be  cultivated  so  as  to  receive 
more  than  a  comparatively  limited  quantity  of  water  at  one 
time  ;  they  do  not  become  wet  from  rain  or  irrigation,  to  any 
considerable  depth.  Ground  waters  under  them  are  at  great 
depths  below  the  surface.  There  is  in  the  best  lands  of  this 
character  always  a  body  of  almost  dry  earth  between  the  sur- 
face soil,  wetted  either  naturally  or  artificially,  and  the  sub- 
soils dampened  by  moisture  rising  from  ground-waters  below. 
It  is  this  characteristic  that  renders  them  "warm,"  in  the  lan- 
guage of  the  orchardist :  keeps  them  particularly  free  from 
frost ;  and  contributes  largely  to  adapt  them  specially  to  citrus 
fruit  growing.  But  they  absolutely  require  artificial  waterings, 
which  must  be  applied  regularly,  oftener  than  on  some  more 
absorptive  soils,  in  less  volumes  at  one  time,  and  through  a 
longer  season  of  irrigation. 


Engineer's  Report.  21 

This  character  being  attributed  in  a  medium  but  not  extreme 
degree  to  a  larger  part  of  Alessandro  lands,  we  have  here  a 
necessity  for  irrigation,  born  both  of  rain  deficiency  and  spe- 
cial soil  requirement.  It  is  the  result  of  scant  rainfall,  of  its 
presentation  all  in  a  few  months  of  each  year,  of  the  excessive 
dryness  of  the  atmosphere  throughout  the  growing  months  for 
vegetation,  of  the  positive  insufficiency  of  water  in,  and  inabil- 
ity of  the  soil  to  receive  sufficient  to  supply  an  exhausting  veg- 
etation for  longer  than  a  few  weeks  at  a  time. 

To  the  thoughtful  and  intelligent  student  of  agriculture,  to 
the  expert  in  irrigation,  or  to  the  practical  irrigator,  there  could, 
on  these  accounts,  be  no  doubt  of  the  necessity  for  and  value 
of  irrigation  in  the  Alessandro  District,  even  though  experience 
had  not  already  actually  proven  these  points  there. 


WATER  SUPPLY. 

The  Alessandro  District,  in  matter  of  water  supply,  is  a  cus- 
tomer of  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company,  one  of  the  larg- 
est and  most  powerful  water-supplying  companies,  in  respect 
to  financial  and  water  resources,  of  Southern  California.  This 
company's  water-right  and  reservoir  privileges  cover  a  wide 
field  in  San  Bernardino  and  San  Diego  counties.  It  has  exten- 
sive works  already  constructed,  others  in  course  of  building, 
and  still  others  in  contemplation  and  planning. 

The  question  of  water  supply  for  the  district,  then,  is  one  of 
ability  and  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  to  fulfill 
its  agreement ;  and  that  involves  a  consideration  of  the  com- 
pany's rights,  privileges  and  abilities,  and  of  its  other  engage- 
ments, and  programme  for  future  development  and  operations. 

This  water-supplying  company  is  one  of  notable  resources 
and  successes.  But  that  it  is  going  to  be  entirely  capable  of 
meeting  all  its  water  engagements  is  an  affirmative  opinion  of 
great  responsibility.  These  engagements,,  however,  are  graded 
as  to  priority.  And  so,  the  writer  of  this  report  has  considered 
the  subject  as  one  of  water-supply  and  delivery  book-keeping, 
in  order  that  an  opinion  for  the  purposes  of  this  special  report 
might  be  arrived  at. 

The  district  holds  its  water  privileges  under  an  agreement 


22  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

with  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company,  dated  May  6th,  1891. 
By  this  engagement,  the  company  has  become  a  contractor  to  de- 
liver at  various  commanding  points  in  the  district  a  supply  of 
water  sufficient  for  its  irrigation,  at  the  rate  of  one  inch  of  flow 
to  each  four  acres  of  land.  This  is  a  larger  water  right  than  al- 
most an>*  other  irrigation  neighborhood  in  Southern  California 
has.  The  usual  measure  of  such  rights  ranges  between  an 
inch  to  five,  and  an  inch  to  ten  acres.  One  to  five  is  consid- 
ered a  first-rate  right  for  any  kind  of  cultivation,  where  deliv- 
ery and  distribution  works  are  of  high  class,  and  cultivation 
and  irrigation  methods  are  not  primitive  and  wasteful,  and 
lands  not  specially  absorptive.  [See  Notes  7  and  8.] 

The  Alessandro  works  are  most  economical  in  delivery  and 
distribution  ;  the  lands  are  nowhere  specially  absorptive  in 
character,  and  for  the  most  part  are  rather  the  reverse  (or 
will  be  when  once  wetted) ;  crop  cultivation  in  the  dis- 
trict is  not  at  all  likely  to  be  (in  other  than  small  proportion, 
only)  of  character  such  as  to  conduce  to  wasteful  methods  or 
habits  in  irrigation  ;  the  class  of  irrigators  is  almost  certain  to 
be  specially  intelligent,  thrifty,  and  careful  not  to  over-irrigate. 
Hence,  I  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  water  certifi- 
cates call  for  all  the  water  which  this  district  can,  in  any  rea- 
son, require  for  the  highest  and  most  remunerative  class  of 
irrigation  practiced  in  this  country. 

The  water  rights  sold  by  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Com- 
pany are  represented  by  certificates  which  have  something  the 
character  of  special  water-stock  share.?.  There  have  been  two 
general  issues  of  these, —  Classes  "  A  "  and  "  B,"  respectively. 
Those  received  by  the  Alessandro  District,  under  the  contract 
aforesaid,  are  of  Class  B.  They  call  for  a  supply  cf  one-eighth 
of  an  inch  to  each  certificate,  and  the  district  has  acquired  51,- 
ooo  such  certificates,  or  two  to  each  of  its  25,500  acres.  The 
maximum  rate  of  deliver}'  is  fixed  at  the  figure  just  stated,  and 
the  total  amount  to  be  furnished  in  any  year,  under  any  one 
certificate,  is  one  acre-foot,  or  43,560  cubic  feet  of  water. 

The  water-supply  contract  and  the  text  of  the  water-right 
certificates  are  annexed  in  full  to  this  report,  and  hence  it  is 
unnecessary  to  review  details  of  the  subject  under  the  present 
heading.  The  originals  plainly,  and  in  good  order,  set  forth 
all  significant  conditions  of  the  service. 


Engineers  Report.  23 

This  seems  to  have  been  the  only  way  that  a  supply  of  water 
could  have  been  had  for  this  body  of  land,  within  moderate 
means.  Conditions  are  such  in  the  special  region,  that  water- 
supply  projects  require  great  capital  and  adroit  management. 
No  single  irrigation  district  could  secure  capital  sufficient  to 
carry  out  such  a  project  as  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  has  carried  out  and 
is  perfecting  here.  Public  corporations,  with  popularly  elected 
officers,  are  in  their  nature  incapable  of  that  thorough  and  elas- 
tic business  management  necessary  for  success  in  such  enter- 
prises under  conditions  of  the  kind  which  govern  in  this  State. 


For  the  purpose  of  this  report,  I  have  made  an  examination 
and  study  of  the  present  and  probable  future  water-supplying 
ability  of  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company,  of  their  engage- 
ments to  furnish  water,  and  their  program  or  scheme  of  works, 
etc.,  to  fulfill  these  engagements.  And  I  am  of  the  opinion 
that  this  company  can  and  will  fulfill  its  contract  now  existing, 
to  supply  the  Alessandro  Irrigation  District,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  terms  of  the  water  certificates  issued  to  the  district 
under  that  contract. 

This  subject  might  be  treated  more  at  length,  and  the  mere 
opinion  be  substantiated  by  demonstration,  but  such  treatment 
would  very  much  lengthen  this  report,  and  make  it  less  read- 
able. In  a  special  paper  on  the  water-supplying  capabilities, 
at  large,  of  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.,  now  in  course  of  preparation  by 
the  writer  hereof,  the  complete  review  will  be  presented.  The 
foregoing  opinion  should  be  regarded  as  quite  full  and  decided 
enough  for  all  purposes  of  this  particular  district  enterprise,  so 
far  as  the  water-supply  question  affects  it. 


WATER  DUTY  AND  DELIVERY. 

In  the  preceding  article  I  have  expressed  the  opinion  that 
this  district  had  secured  an  ample  water  supply,  by  its  purchase 
from  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  of  two  Class  B  water-right  certificates 
for  each  acre  of  district  area. 

Certificates  of  this  class  limit  the  total  quantity  of  water 


24  Alessandro  Irrigation  Dtstria. 

furnished  per  year  to  one  foot  in  depth,  and  the  rate  of  deliv- 
ery to  an  inch  of  flow  to  eight  acres.  The  Alessandro  District, 
having  two  certificates  to  the  acre,  is  entitled  to  receive  twice 
this  depth  of  service,  and  at  double  the  above  rate  of  delivery. 

The  maximum  service,  then,  would  be  at  the  rate  of  about  .3 
foot  in  30  days.  This,  as  a  maximum  monthly  demand,  is  about 
15  per  cent  of  the  annual  volume.  Now,  experience  has  shown 
that  the  greatest  monthly  demand,  where  the  supply  is  at  the 
rate  of  one  inch  to  five  acres  on  fully  developed  irrigation  of 
this  class,  is  at  the  rate  of  18  per  cent  of  the  total  annual  con- 
sumption. Hence,  it  may  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  the  duty 
allowed  for  in  Alessandro  District  is  quite  sufficient. 

The  rate  of  delivery  and  commencement  of  use  of  water  in 
succeeding  years,  under  the  contract,  is,  in  terms  of  maximum 
service,  as  follows : 

Time  of  Commencement.  No.  of  Certificates.     No.  of  Acres.     No.  of  Inches. 


June  ist  1891 

4OOO 

2,000 

CQO 

,  \J\J\J 

O'-"-' 

April  ist,  1892  

6,006 

3,000 

750 

"  ist,  1893.  ...-•• 

6,000 

3,000 

750 

"  ist,  1894  

6,000 

3,000 

750 

"  ist,  1895  

6,000 

3,000 

750 

"  ist,  1896  

6,000 

3,000 

750 

"  ist,  1897  

6,000 

3,000 

75° 

"  ist,  1898  

6,000 

3,000 

750 

"   ist,  1899  

5,000 

2,500 

625 

51,000  25,500  6,375 

WORKS  AND  COSTS. 

The  case  of  Alessandro  District  is  different  in  an  important 
respect  from  that  of  other  districts  heretofore  reported  upon. 
Its  water  supply,  delivery,  and,  for  the  greater  portion  of  its 
area,  its  distribution  works  also,  are  built  virtually  by  contract 
at  a  prefixed  price,  and  for  the  amount  of  bonds  already  voted. 
So,  for  one  important  purpose  of  this  report,  it  does  not  much 
matter  what  the  actual  cost  of  construction  of  works  may  be  ; 
for  the  district  is  bonded  to  the  extent  of  $30  per  acre  —  no 
more  and  no  less. 


Engineer's  Report.  25 

But  although  the  full  extent  of  district  indebtedness  is  thus 
determined  from  the  start,  the  question  of  value  of  works  still 
remains  of  interest  as  a  factor,  both  directly  and  indirectly,  in 
the  value  of  the  security  offered  for  the  bonded  debt,  even 
though  prefixed  and  limited  as  above. 


To  well  understand  the  situation  as  to  works  and  cost  of 
works  for  the  irrigation  development  of  Alessandro  District,  it 
is  necessary  to  know  something  of  the  history  of  the  enterprise. 
The  Bear  Valley  L,and  and  Water  Company  was  incorporated 
in  1883,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $360,000,  divided  into  3600 
shares.  It  was  a  water-suppljdng  company,  and  built  and  owned 
the  Bear  Valley  dam  and  reservoir,  and  other  works. 

In  July,  1890,  the  Bear  Valley  and  Alessandro  Development 
Company  was  formed,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $400,000,  and 
with  the  objects,  in  general  terms,  of  (i)  acquiring  control  of 
the  B.  V.  I/  &  W.  Company,  (2)  buying  lands  suitable  for  irri- 
gation, (3)  delivering  and  distributing  Bear  Valley  water  to 
them,  and  (4)  selling  them,  thus  improved,  at  a  profit. 

A  tract  of  about  2 1 ,000  acres,  now  within  the  Alessandro  dis- 
trict, was  purchased,  and  2000  of  the  3600  shares  of  the  B.  V. 
I/.  &  W.  Co.  stock  was  secured.  The  construction  of  a  main 
conduit  was  commenced,  to  deliver  waters  from  the  Santa  Ana 
river  to  the  land  bought,  which  was  called  the  Alessandro  tract. 
The  plan  was  to  fully  deliver  and  distribute  water  to  these  lands, 
and  sell  them  in  small  tracts,  for  enough  to  pay  a  profit  oncost 
of  land  and  the  water  service,  and  with  contracts  to  pay  a  year- 
ly water  rental  that  would  thereafter  yield  a  revenue  to  the 
company. 

In  November,  1 890,  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company  was 
organized,  with  a  capital  stock  of  $4,000,000,  and  it  took  all 
the  rights,  privileges,  works,  lands  and  contracts  of  both  the 
B.  V.  L.  &  \V.  Co.  and  the  B.  V.  &  A.  D.  Co.  The  latter 
company  took  stock  of  the  new  company  for  its  properties,  and 
now  holds  a  controlling  interest  in  it.  The  new  company  was 
organized  to  carry  on  the  business  of  both  companies  which 
had  preceded  it,  and  has  continued  to  do  so. 

In  December,  1890,  and  January,  1891,  the  Alessandro  Irri 


26  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

gation  district,  embracing  the  21,000- acre  Alessandro  tract  of 
the  B.  V.  I.  Co. ,  and  about  4500  acres  of  other  owners,  was 
formed  ;  and  under  the  subsequent  agreement  for  water-rights 
hereinbefore  explained,  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  became  a  contractor 
to  deliver  water  to  and  upon  the  district  along  certain  main 
lines  of  supply.  This  agreement  was,  of  course,  for  the  en- 
tire district,  and  involved  the  construction  by  the  B.  V.  I.  Co. 
of  all  necessary  main  works. 

The  Board  of  Directors  of  the  district  in  June  (1891)  adopted 
a  resolution  to  the  effect  that  ' '  the  owner  of  every  ten-acre  lot 
' '  in  the  Alessandro  Irrigation  District,  before  taking  water  on 
( '  said  lot,  must  first  pay  his  exact  pro  rata  of  the  expense  of 
' '  piping,  or  conveying  in  brick  flumes,  the  water  from  the  Bear 
"  Valley  Irrigation  Company's  pipe  lines  or  canal,  to  the  high- 
' '  est  comer  of  said  lot.  Said  pipe  line  or  brick  flume  to  become 
' '  the  property  of  the  Alessandro  Irrigation  District,  and  to  be 
"  thereafter  maintained  by  said  district." 

Meanwhile,  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  and  its  predecessor,  the  B.  V. 
&  A.  D.  Co.,  had  been  dividing  its  2i,ooo-acre  tract,  putting 
in  distribution  works  for,  and  selling  it  in  lots  of  10  acres  each. 
In  making  the.<!e  sales  the  company  contracted  to  construct 
works  and  lay  pipe  lines  to  deliver  water,  at  the  rate  of  one 
inch  to  four  acres,  at  the  highest  point  of  the  (lo-acre)  tract 
sold,  in  each  case,  and  the  first  payments  011  these  sales  were 
not  due  until  such  works  had  been  constructed.  The  building 
of  these  distributaries  has,  since  commencement  in  the  early 
part  of  the  present  year,  been  continuously  pressed  forward, 
until  now  the  greater  part  of  the  2i,ooo-acre  tract  of  the  B.  V. 
I.  Co.  is  subdivided,  and  pipe  service  provided  for  a  large 
portion  of  it. 

These  distribution  works  are  of  the  very  best  class  for  the 
purpose.  The  B.  V.  I.  Co.  receives  its  return  for  them  in  its 
land  sales.  Other  land  owners  than  those  buying  from  this 
company  have  to  pay  their  share  of  dost  of  such  works  as  will 
serve  their  lands,  or  put  in  an  independent  distribution  system 
for  themselves.  In  any  event,  in  order  to  subdivide  and  sell 
lands  to  advantage,  all  the  works  must  come  up  to  the  stand- 
ard now  set.  And,  finally,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  har- 
mony amongst  the  owners  of  lands  in  the  district,  and  distri- 
bution construction  is  going  forward. 


Engineer's  Report.  27 

Hence — as  all  the  distributaries  become  the  property  of  the 
district,  and  all  the  main  works  remain  the  property  of  the  B. 
V.  I.  Co.,  with  right  of  use  thereof  for  delivery  purposes  con- 
tracted to  the  district — the  cost  of  district  works  and  waters 
will  be  limited  to  the  $30  per  acre  alreadj^  contracted  and  paid, 
and  the  district  will  have  the  use  of  all  essential  works  (under 
its  contract  for  water-delivery)  of  a  high  order. 

The  water-supply  for  Alessandro  District,  as  well  as  that, 
thus  far,  for  all  customers  of  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  on  the  plains  of 
San  Jacinto,  comes  by  a  steel  pipe,  10  miles  in  length,  from 
Santa  Ana  river  and  Mill  creek  above  Redlands,  and  through 
a  tunnel  in  the  intervening  dividing  ridge,  to  a  point  just  above 
the  northern  corner  of  the  Alessandro  District,  as  shown  on  the 
maps.  Thence  it  is  conducted  in  concrete  lined  canals,  on 
grade  so  as  to  command  the  slopes  below.  Main  pipe  lines  (of 
steel,  where  under  pressure,  and  of  vitrified  earthen-ware, 
where  not  under  pressure)  serve  for  sub-delivery  through  the 
tract,  on  routes  governed  by  the  topography  and  location  of 
demand.  From  these,  distribution  is  made  on  every  (almost) 
quarter-mile  line,  down  the  slope  from  north  to  south,  so  as  to 
serve  each  lo-acre  tract  at  its  highest  corner.  These  distribu- 
taries are,  for  the  most  part,  of  iron-stone  vitrified  clay  pipe, 
laid  with  cement  joints,  but  some  cement  pipe  has  been  used. 
The  sizes  of  distributaries  range  from  6  to  14  inches  in  dia- 
meter, and  of  main  pipe  from  12  to  24  inches. 

West  of  the  tunnel,  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  has  thus  far  expended  : 

On  Main  (Company)  Works $100,651  62 

On  Distribution  (District)  Works 80,026  30 


Total $180,677  92 

To  this  amount  a  sum  equal  to  about  five  per  cent  is  to  be 
added  for  engineering  and  surveying  for  works.  [See  Exhibit 

I-] 

The  cost  of  the  distribution  system  for  4200  acr<  s,  of  which 
account  was  kept,  including  all  engineering  and  other  contin- 
gent expense,  was  $76,251.94,  or  $18.15  per  acre  thus  pre- 
pared to  be  served. 

Distribution  to  each  irrigator  is  made  by  "  well  outlets  "  of 


28  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

i4-inch  vitrified  pipe,  in  which  the  water  is  caused  to  rise  and 
overflow  through  a  weir  lip  into  a  surface  irrigating  flume.  An 
iron  sliding  gate,  with  its  frame  and  seat  specially  cemented 
into  the  well  piece,  is  actuated  to  shut  off  the  onward  flow  of 
water  in  the  pipe  below,  thus  causing  as  much  as  desired  to 
rise  in  the  well  and  flow  over  the  weir. 


I  have  viewed  these  works  in  construction,  have  looked  into 
the  plans,  and  am  of  the  opinion  that  the  system  as  a  whole  is 
well  designed,  and  will  be  efficient  to  the  end  desired.  In  mat- 
ter of  cost,  as  already  explained,  it  does  not  directly  affect  the 
district  or  its  securities.  [See  Note  10.] 

Efficiency  and  completeness  insured,  as  I  believe  is  done  in 
this  case,  it  matters  not,  so  far  as  the  district  is  concerned, 
whether  the  cultivator  has  had  to  pay,  in  buying  his  land,  $18 
or  even  $28  per  acre,  for  distributing  water  to  its  highest  point. 

In  my  opinion,  the  distribution  system  now  being  placed  in 
the  Alessandro  District  is  the  most  complete  and  best  for  or- 
chard and  vineyard  irrigation  service  in  California.  In  express- 
ing this  opinion,  the  writer  does  not  reflect  slightingly  on  any 
other  neighborhood  or  system  of  works.  There  are  others  that 
are  excellent.  The  simple  fact  is  that  this  Alessandro  work  is 
the  newrest  of  its  class,  and  is  being  carried  out  under  circum- 
stances that  make  it  pay  its  projectors  to  do  it  as  completely 
and  as  well  as  it  can  be  done,  in  the  light  of  experiences  had 
thus  far,  and  within  any  reasonable  amount  of  cost,  for  the  pur- 
pose. 


I  do  not  undertake  to  consider  in  detail  the  cost  of  water 
supply  to  this  district.  One  hundred  and  twenty  dollars  per 
inch,  or  $6,000  the  cubic  foot  per  second  of  flow,  during  the 
period  of  maximum  demand  in  irrigation,  is  not  a  high  cost  for 
water  supply  and  deliver}-  of  this  character,  on  lands  of  this 
kind,  in  the  citrus  belt  of  Southern  California.  It  is  de- 
cidedly less  than  some  other  very  successful  orange-growing 
neighborhoods  have  paid  ;  and  it  is  less  than  .this  district  could 
in  any  other  way  have  secured  a  supply  for.  [See  Note  n.] 


Engineer's  Report.  29 


DISTRICT  VALUATION. 

Referring  to  the  ASSESSMENT  AND  TAX  STATEMENT  em- 
bodied in  Exhibit  IV,  it  will  be  seen  that,  in  the  current  year, 
valuations  have  been  placed  on  property  for  purposes  of  tax- 
ation in  the  district,  as  follows  : 

Farming  lands 

Improvements  thereon 

Town  property 

Improvements  thereon 

R.  R.  right  of  way  and  track 


$2,436,036 

The  mean  valuation  of  farming  lands  is  $95.87  per  acre;  the 
highest  valuation  of  any  40  acres  is  at  the  rate  of  $100  ;  the 
lowest,  $33.50  ;  the  highest  for  230  acres  is  $100  per  acre  ;  the 
lowest,  $37.45.  These  valuations,  of  course,  include  the  water- 
rights. 

These  rates  were  up  to  the  selling  prices  of  these  lands  at 
the  time  of  the  tax  levy.  Now,  the  ordinary  price  is  $120  per 
acre.  The  actual  value  of  this  class  of  lands,  with  such  a  water 
supply  and  distribution  service,  in  this  region,  in  my  judg- 
ment, is  not  less  than  $300  per  acre.  Compared  to  other  lands 
and  water-rights  which  now  find  sale  purely  for  fruit  raising 
as  an  industry,  within  five  miles  of  this  district,  at  prices  rang- 
ing from  $300  to  $600  per  acre,  I  fail  to  see  wherein  the  differ- 
ence can  be,  except  that  of  immediate  neighborhood  advantage 
and  established  sentiment,  and  these  influences  will,  in  all 
probability,  soon  be  equalized. 

But  these  lands  are  worth  $300  per  acre  for  what  they  will 
produce.  Water  is  already  delivered  in  this  district  ;  irriga- 
tion is  under  way  ;  several  thousand  acres  are  already  set  out 
to  oranges,  and  other  fine  fruits  and  vines.  The  fact  that  these 
will  thrive  here  cannot,  in  my  judgment,  be  questioned.  The 
place  is  but  a  reduplication  of  soils,  exposures,  elevations  and 
other  conditions  under  which  such  horticultural  thrift  is  found 
in  the  immediate  neighborhood. 


30  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

The  fact  that  fmt  last  year  these  San  Jacinto  lands  were 
bought  for  10  to  20  dollars  per  acre,  and  that,  without  water, 
they  are  not  worth  more  than  that  now,  cuts  no  figure  in  this 
connection.  The  fact  is,  they  now  have  water-rights  and  high- 
class  works.  If  we  accept  this  fact  at  all,  we  must  accept  it 
for  all  it  is  worth  in  other  and  similar  cases  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood,  under  similar  conditions.  The  fact  that  they 
can  now  be  bought  for  $120  per  acre  from  the  developing  com- 
pany is  not  to  the  point.  The  company  is  selling  a  portion  of 
these  lands  at  what  it  deems  a  fair  profit  to  it,  to  make  imme- 
diate sales  and  get  population,  on  which  the  value  of  the  whole 
depends. 

Values  here  on  such  lands  depend  on  water  well  delivered 
and  distributed,  and  on  population  to  use  it.  The  lands  are, 
we  might  even-  say,  valueless  without  water.  But  with  the 
water  delivered  they  are  actually  worth  as  much  as  any  other 
similar  lands  with  similar  water-rights — other  conditions  being 
equal.  [See  Note  12.] 

In  1870  there  was  no  Riverside.  From  1871  to  1876  lands 
were  preempted  on  that  plain,  upon  government  terms  ($2.50 
per  acre  within  the  S.  P.  railroad  grant).  In  1884  lands  above 
the  original  Riverside  canals,  without  water-rights,  could  be 
bought  at  $5.00  per  acre.  Now,  with  water-rights,  there  is  not 
an  acre  of  even  moderately  good  cultivable  land  that  can  be 
had  on  that  plain  for  less  than  $300  per  acre,  bare.  This  is 
only  two  to  six  miles  from  the  Alessandro  District. 

Commencing  with  1881,  an  exactly  parallel  history  has  been 
made  at  Redlands,  but  6  to  10  miles  from  Alessandro  District, 
and  at  about  the  same  elevation.  Now  the  Redlands  neighbor- 
hood is  a  far-reaching  horticultural  park.  The  most  thrifty  and 
luxurious  orchards  and  vineyards,  with  many  houses  even  ele- 
gant as  well  as  substantial,  occupy  a  space  of  five  to  six  square 
miles.  There  is  no  good  land  with  good  water-rights  here  that 
can  be  bought,  unimproved,  for  less  than  $250  per  acre,  and 
$400  to  $500  is  nearer  the  mark  for  that  which  compares  well 
in  soil  and  surface  with  the  greater  portion  of  the  Alessandro 
tract. 

In  1889  there  was  about  3000  a^res  of  orange  orchards  in 
Riverside  proper.  No  inconsiderable  portion  of  this  was  but 


Engineer's  Report.  31 

just  commencing  to  yield.  A  comparatively  small  portion,  only, 
was  in  full  bearing  and  up  to  its  prime.  But  there  were  1480 
carloads  of  this  fruit,  valued  at  $1,184,000,  shipped  from  River- 
side that  year,  that  had  been  gathered  from  those  3000  acres, 
or  a  gross  return  of  $395  per  acre.  The  raisin  crop  of.  that 
year  has  been  returned  at  an  aggregate  value  of  $600,000. 
This  would  make,  with  other  fruits,  fully  $1,800,000  from  the 
6000  acres  which  Riverside  occupies,  or  $300  per  acre,  over  all, 
though  the  greater  area  was  not  yet  producing. 

Other  notable  examples  could  be  cited.  It  is  a  well-known 
and  generally  conceded  fact,  that  orange  orchards  well  cared 
for  in  this  special  region,  when  in  full  bearing,  return  from  $250 
to  $500  per  year,  net,  to  the  acre. 

In  my  opinion  the  Alessandro  District  lands,  having  works 
up  to  the  best  standard,  and  a  water-right  as  full  as  need  be 
for  any  purpose,  and  being  suited  to  the  best  horticultural 
growths,  are,  judged  by  the  Redlands  and  Riverside  standards 
and  experience,  worth  now,  commercially,  an  average  of  at 
least  $150  per  acre  ;  within  10  years  they  should  be  worth  $300 
per  acre  ;  and  within  10  years  thereafter,  $450. 

All  such  values  are  subject  to  modification,  under  the  work- 
ing of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand.  These  figures  are  based 
on  proven  productive  ability,  and  with  the  allowance  of  liberal 
discount  for  safety.  They  are  independent  of  value  of  improve- 
ments which  may  be  placed  or  grown  on  the  lands,  and  of 
values  dependent  on  social,  climatic,  or  neighborhood  advan- 
tages for  mere  residence  purpose. 


The  values  of  improvements  on  farming  lands  in  such  cases 
develop  for  taxation  in  greater  ratios  than  those  of  the  lands 
themselves.  There  was  at  time  of  assessment  in  this  fiscal 
year  practically  no  improvement  on  the  lands  of  the  Alessan- 
dro District.  But  when  these  are  cultivated  in  10  and  2o-acre 
orchards  and  vineyards,  as  they  will  be  under  thorough  irriga- 
tion, it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  there  will  be  at  least  $2000 
worth  of  improvements  on  each  ;  or  say,  $150  per  acre,  on  the 
average. 

Orange  orchards,   for  instance,   are  improvements,  for  pur- 


32  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

poses  of  tax  revenue  ;  and  this  past  year  they  were  valued  in 
state  and  county  taxation,  in  this  region,  at  from  $80  to  $150 
per  acre,  according  to  age  and  condition  of  bearing.  Vine- 
yards, also,  found  rating  at  from  $75  to  $100  per  acre,  on  the 
assessor's  rolls,  in  addition  to  land  values.  The  residence 
houses  that  are  built  in  neighborhoods  of  this  class,  when  the 
orchards  and  vineyards  come  into  bearing,  leaving  out  the  bet- 
ter ones,  range  in  cost  from  $1200  to  $4500  on  a  lo-acre  or  20- 
acre  tract.  Assessed  at  one-third  cost,  their  taxed  valuation 
would  be  $400  to  $1500,  or  $25  to  $100  per  acre  for  dwelling 
improvements,  counting  a  house  to  every  15  acres. 

The  $150  per  acre  for  all  improvements,  when  the  district  is 
fully  developed, — say  in  twenty  years — would  produce  a  valu- 
ation on,  say,  24,000  of  the  25,500  acres,  of  $3,600,000. 

The  corresponding  rural  population  would  be  about  5,000 
persons.  This  would  justify  a  town  population  of  about  2,500 
people  ;  and  this,  in  turn,  a  realty  value  of  about  $1,250,000 
for  town  property.  Upon  these  assumptions  we  may,  by  way 
of  studying  the  possible  future  ability  to  pay  its  debts,  forecast 
values  for  Alessandro  District  about  as  follows : 

When  Irrigation  In  10  years 

well  commences.  thereafter.  In  20  years. 

Farming  Lands  ...  .$3,000,000  $6,000,000  $9,000,000 

Improvements 150,000  1,500,000  3,000,000 

Town  Property  and 

Improvements  .  .  .       200,000  600,000  1,200,000 


$3>35°>000         $8,100,000         $13,200,000 

I  believe  these  to  be  conservative  estimates  and  predictions 
for  the  times  to  which  they  apply. 


It  must  always  be  remembered,  in  studying  the  question  of 
values  in  such  districts,  that  it  is  the  water  united  with  lands 
of  certain  characters,  subject  to  particular  climatic  conditions, 
and  in  the  hands  of  a  specially  thrifty  population,  that  consti- 
tutes the  basis. 

A  district  of  this  class  is  essentially  a  development  enter- 


Engineer's  Report.  33 

prise.  Its  values  are  created  with  the  money  that  is  put  into 
it  as  a  project.  To  look  for  real  value,  as  a  basis  of  credit, 
behind  the  created  values  of  the  development  work,  is  to  look 
for  that  which  no  one  for  a  moment  maintains  is  in  existence. 


BONDED  INDEBTEDNESS. 

The  Alessandro  District  bonds  having  been  issued  to  the 
extent  of  $765,000  for  water  delivered,  (distribution  works, 
thrown  in,  as  it  were,)  there  is  now,  as  security  for  the  loan 
contemplated  by  the  law,  property  now  assessed  on  a  valuation 
of  $2,436,036  ;  of  which  $2,396,819  is  the  rated  value  of  the 
farming  lands.  In  my  opinion,  these  lands  are  now  actually 
worth  $3,000,000. 

Considering  all  the  property  pledged  under  the  law,  on  the 
basis  of  figures  in  the  preceding  article,  the  district  which  is 
bonded  for  $30  per  acre,  is  now  worth  about  $131  per  acre  ; 
within  10  }rears  will  be  worth  $318  ;  and  within  10  years  addi- 
tional $51 8.  Arrived  at,  in  a  general  way,  as  above  written, 
these  valuations  are  from  30  to  50  per  cent  within  the  limits  of 
probabilities  which,  in  my  judgment,  ma}'  well  be  expected  in 
the  light  of  development  precedents  in  this  region ;  even  allow- 
ing yet  for  immense  shrinkage  of  profits  in  the  industries  on 
which  all  values  here  depend.  [See  Notes  13  and  14.] 

PRESENT  FINANCIAL  CONDITION. 

The  finances  of  this  district  present  a  very  simple  problem, 
in  so  far  as  the  present  report  is  concerned.  On  the  yth  of 
March,  1891,  by  unanimous  vote  of  the  electors,  the  Board  of 
Directors  were  authorized  to  issue  and  sell  bonds  of  the  district 
to  the  par  value  of  $765,000  ;  which  was  at  the  rate  of  $30  per 
acre  on  the  entire  area. 

This  was  done  on  May  6th,  and  on  the  same  day  the  entire 
issue  was  paid  at  par  to  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company 
for  water  rights  (represented  by  51,000  Class  B  certificates)  and 
water  delivered,  as  per  the  terms  of  the  contract  already  ex- 
plained. [See  Exhibit  V.] 

During  this  first  year  of  district  existence,  an  assessment 
3 


34  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

of  property,  for  purposes  of  taxation,  has  been  made  at  the  time 
of  year  prescribed  in  the  law,  but  the  time  for  collecting  taxes 
has  not  yet  come.  For  this  reason  the  accounts  known  as  the 
General  Fund  and  the  Bond  Fund,  which  are  credited  with  tax 
receipts  to  meet,  respectively,  current  administrative  expenses, 
and  the  interest  011  and  principal  of  bonds,  have  not  as  yet  been 
opened.  [See  Exhibit  III.] 

The  tax  rate  has  been  fixed  at  $2.25  on  the  $100,  and  the 
total  levy  for  district  purposes  is  $54,384.32. 

FUTURE  FINANCIAL  OUTLOOK. 

The  total  assessed  valuation  of  the  property  in  this  district  is 
now  $2,436,036.  With  the  realization  of  irrigation  now  in 
rapid  progress,  and  in  large  degree,  practically,  consummated 
under  the  plans  described,  and  with  the  water-rights  contracted 
for,  in  my  opinion,  this  taxed  valuation,  for  the  purposes  of 
district  enterprise,  is  altogether  reasonable.  It  is  a  fair  index 
of  actual  values  at  the  present  time,  rated  on  holdings  now  in 
individual  ownership  and  gauged  by  precedent,  the  most  con- 
clusive and  applicable  in  matters  of  property  assessment  in 
this  country.  It  is  about  70  per  cent  of  the  present  fair  commer- 
cial value  which  I  have  arrived  at  in  the  manner  explained  in 
the  preceding  article.  With  this  as  a  first  step,  it  will,  in  my 
judgment,  be  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  assessed  value  may, 
10  years  from  now,  be  found  at  about  60  per  cent  of  the  com- 
mercial value  for  that  time  which  I  have  undertaken  to  foretell. 
And,  finally,  for  the  period  still  10  years  later,  or  20  years  from 
now,  in  my  judgment,  we  may  reasonably  expect  to  see  the  as- 
sessed value  at  as  much  as  50  per  cent  of  the  presumed  commer- 
cial value  for  that  time.  A  brief  statement  of  estimates,  in  this 
line,  based  on  the  foregoing,  wrould  appear  as  follows  : 


Period  of  Time.                           Commercial  Per  cent  of 

Values.  Com.  Value.         Valuation. 

When  Irrigation  commenc- 
es, (now) $  3,350,000  70 —      $2,436,036 

10  years  from  now 8,100,000  60            4,860,000 

10  years,  still  later 13,200,000  50            6,600,000 

The  above  projected  valuations  are  intended  to  cover  all 


Engineer's  Report.  35 

classes  of  property  taxable  in  the  district,  but  they  make  no 
allowance  for  increase  of  values  for  railway  property  which  is 
now  taxed.  They  are  not  to  be  taken  as  indicative  of  values 
of  farming  lauds  alone.  The  foregoing  article  on  District  Val- 
uation has  dealt  with  this  point. 

For  purposes  of  an  illustration  of  how  this  district  may  meet 
its  bonded  debt,  I  assume  that  when  the  time  comes  for  levying 
the  first  tax,  from  the  proceeds  of  which,  under  the  law,  the 
first  payment  of  the  principal  is  to  be  made — the  eleventh  year 
from  the  time  of  issuing  bonds — the  taxed  valuation  of  property 
in  it  will  be  $4,500,000  and  in  the  last  year  for  such  payment 
— the  twentieth  from  time  of  issue — this  basis  of  revenue  will 
be  $6,500,000.  Then,  allowing  the  increase  to  be  uniform,  for 
the  period — at  the  rate  of  $200, cooper  year — and  observing  the 
provisions  of  the  law  about  percentages  of  the  par  values  of 
bonds  to  be  paid  off  each  year,  I  project  an  assessment  and  tax- 
lev}'  schedule  on  bond  account,  for  those  years,  and  embody  it 
in  Bxhibit  II. 


ADDITIONAL  BOND  ISSUE. 

The  issue  of  $765,000  in  bonds  by  this  district  was  made  on 
the  basis  of  its  full  area — 25,500  acres.  Since  this* action  there 
has  been  no  change  of  district  boundaries  or  area.  Uncer  the 
contract  with  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company,  the  devel- 
opment methods  followed  by  that  company  and  other  large 
land  owners,  and  the  resolution  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of 
the  district,  all  as  heretofore  set  forth,  the  district  will  be  fully 
supplied  with  water  and  works  complete,  at  the  cost  of  these 
bonds  already  issued.  Hence,  unless  there  is  failure  on  the 
part  of  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.,  and  I  see  no  reason  to  regard  it  as 
otherwise  than  a  thoroughly  reliable  contract  or  in  this  business, 
there  can  be  no  necessity  for  any  further  issue  of  bonds  by  this 
district  on  the  basis  of  its  present  acreage.  There  might  be  an 
increase  of  area,  by  addition  of  more  lands  some  time,  in  which 
event  there  would,  of  course,  have  to  be  a  further  issue  of  bonds 
for  water  rights  and  works  on  the  basis  of  the  added  acres. 


36  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 


RIGHT  OF  WAY  MATTERS. 

This  district,  as  must  be  apparent  from  the  foregoing,  has 
had  no  dealings,  and  consequently  no  trouble  and  no  expense, 
on  the  score  of  right  of  way  for  works.  The  contracting  water 
compan}*  has  met  all  such  questions  on  its  main  lines  of  supply 
to  and  through  the  district,  and  the  property  owners  within  its 
borders  construct  or  pay  for  distributaries  through  lands  owned 
by  themselves,  and,  of  course,  grant  right  of  way  for  the  pipes 
thus  laid. 

CONTRACTS  AND  CONTRACT  RATES. 

For  the  same  reason,  there  is  no  statement  of  contracts  and 
contract  rates  on  district  account  to  be  presented,  other  than 
that  concerning  the  one  contract  made  with  the  Bear  Valley 
Irrigation  Company.  The  water  privileges  controlled  by  this 
contracting  company,  and  available  for  immediate  utilization 
in  supplying  Alessandro  District,  are  certain  rights  in  the  waters 
of  Santa  Ana  river  and  Mill  Creek,  and  the  reservoired  waters 
of  Bear  Creek, — all  on  the  western  slope  of  the  San  Bernardino 
mountains.  From  a  commanding  point  in  this  localit)*  the 
present  supply  is  brought  by  the  pipe  and  tunnel  line  hereto- 
fore described.  The  company  has  just  located  and  commenced 
construction  on  a  line  of  conduit  involving  canals,  tunnels  and 
pipe  lines  of  great  cost,  to  bring  the  waters  of  Whitewater  river, 
which  now  flow  from  the  eastern  face  of  the  San  Bernardino 
mountains  out  into  Colorado  desert,  around  the  mountain, 
through  San  Gorgonio  pass,  and,  piercing  the  ridge  east  of  Al- 
essandro District,  into  San  Jaciuto  valley. 

These  two  lines,  developed  by  the  addition  of  more  pipes  and 
enlargement  of  the  open  conduits,  as  necessities  and  engage- 
ments require,  will  be  the  main  routes  of  delivery  of  Bear  Yal- 
lejr  I.  Company  waters  to  all  its  customers  on  the  higher  lands 
in  the  San  Jacinto  valley,  the  Alessandro  and  Ferris  Districts 
being  the  chiefest.  It  has  another  source  commanding  service 
to  lower-lying  lands  in  this  region.  The  main  works  to  and 
through  the  lands  of  its  customers,  built  by  the  B.  V.  I.  Co., 


Engineer's  Report.  37 

remain  its  property,  subject  to  and  devoted  to  use  in  perform- 
ing its  contracts  to  the  customer,  in  each  case.  Its  contract  is 
to  deliver  and  furnish  water  to  the  Alessandro  District,  not  to 
build  works  for  it.  The  works  which  the  district  will  own  are 
those  for  distribution,  and  these  are  built  by  the  land  owners 
individually — the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  among  the  number — and  are 
presented  to  the  district  without  charge. 


COST  OF  THIS  IRRIGATION. 

In  like  manner,  the  question  of  cost  of  irrigation  in  this  dis- 
trict is  greatly  simplified.  Thirty  dollars  per  acre  covers  the 
cost  of  water  delivered.  The  actual  cost  of  the  B.  V.  I.  Co. 
works  to  effect  this  service  is  yet  unknown,  even  to  the  com- 
pany itself.  It  is  sufficient  for  the  purposes  of  this  report  to 
say,  that  Alessandro  District  could  not  have  secured  a  water 
supply  by  any  other  means  at  any  less  cost,  even  if  it  could 
have  done  so  at  all. 

If  we  assume,  as  is  not  unlikely  to  be  the  case,  that  main 
works  for  the  full  service,  pro  rata,  of  Alessandro  District,  will 
cost  the  B.  V.  I.  Co.  as  much  as  $17  per  acre  of  the  district 
arear  the  cost  of  this  irrigation  system,  including  the  distribu- 
tary works  at  $18  per  acre,  asalreadv  reported,  when  looked  at 
merely  from  the  engineering  standpoint,  will  have  been  $35 
per  acre.  Taking  lands  worth  certainly  less  than  $20  per  acre 
without  water,  and  making  them  worth,  immediately,  really 
$150  per  'acre,  works  for  the  purpose  might  be  regarded  as 
cheap  at  much  more  than  the  above  possible  cost.  The  land 
owner  in  this  district  ultimately  will  have  paid  for  works  and 
water  rights,  in  purchase  of  land  and  in  payment  of  bonds,  $48 
per  acre, — that  is,  $18  as  part  of  land  cost,  and  $30  for  water 
and  delivery. 

CHARACTER  OF  THIS  WORK. 

The  works  designed  and  in  construction  to  serve  this  district 
are  of  a  kind  as  yet  peculiar  to  Southern  California.  This 
class  of  irrigation  construction,  in  the  present  stage  of  the  so- 
cial and  material  growth  of  our  country,  is  commercially  prac- 


38  Alessandro  Irrigation  District, 

ticable,  on  a  large  scale,  only  under  conditions  similar  to  those 
found  there.  Moreover,  the  element  of  speculation  must  be 
present  in  the  development  enterprise,  and  conditions  must  fa- 
vor this.  Whether  it  is  speculation  on  the  part  of  an  individ- 
ual, a  private  corporation,  or  a  community  organized  under  a 
districc  or  other  law,  does  not  so  very  much  matter.  The  essen- 
tial point  is  that  those  who  in  the  initial  stages  of  the  enter- 
prise— the  first  years  of  development — assume  the  risk  and  per- 
form the  labor,  shall  see  their  way  clear  to  making  money  by 
the  venture.  The  cost  of  water- rights  and  irrigation  works 
has  to  be  added  to  the  costot"  lands  served,  and  the  limit  of  sub- 
sequent land  value  over  total  cost  must  be  great  enough  to 
show  a  large  margin  of  profit  in  the  initial  operation.  The 
profits  from  irrigation  industry  itself  must  be  left  to  the  culti- 
vator, who  is  the  actor  in  the  subsequent  phase  of  progress. 

The  great  margin  of  profit  in  enhanced  land  values,  which 
an  expenditure  of  $25  to  $50  per  acre  for  works  makes  neces- 
sary, is  with  absolute  certainty  to  be  found  only  where  the 
raising  of  fine  fruits  is,  by  irrigation,  made  practicable  on  lands 
primarily  of  little  cost.  Southern  California  and  localities  in  the 
Central  and  Northern  part  of  this  State  present  conditions  where- 
under  this  is  possible.  Here  are  found,  dry  and  desolate  lands 
and  soils,  with  exposures  suited  to  the  growth  and  maturing  of 
the  very  finest  and  most  delicate  fruits,  and  climatic  conditions 
that  are  essential  to  such  production,  if  only  moisture  is  prop- 
erly applied. 

But  these  are  not  all  that  is  necessary  to  insure  full  measures 
of  success  in  that  horticultural  practice  upon  which  high-class 
and  high-cost  irrigation  development  enterprises  depend.  Good 
and  suitable  soils,  abundant  water-rights,  good  works  and  fa- 
vorable climate  for  the  growth  and  ripening  of  fine  fruits  will 
not  alone,  however  much  advertised,  at  the  present  stage  of 
social  growth,  promptly  bring  to  an  irrigation  neighborhood 
the  population  necessary  to  work  out  those  successes  which 
create  the  high  values  of  land  wherein  lie  the  incentive  for 
first  action  in  such  enterprise. 

Neither  the  irrigator  nor  the  horticulturist,  pure  and' simple, 
nor  3Tet  the  laborer,  farm  hand,  nor  farmer,  represents  the 
character  of  immigration  essential  to  the  making  of  such  com- 


Engineer's  Report.  39 

munities  as  take  $200  to  $400  per  acre  per  year  off  of  irrigated 
lands  in  Southern  California,  and  have  built  up  from  nothing, 
cash  land  valuations  ranging  between  $500  and  $1,000  per 
acre,  unimproved. 

That  country  has  been  made,  and  this  species  of  enterprise 
has  been  made  possible,  by  another  character  of  man,  who 
has  come  to  it  because  he  can  live  there  comfortably.  It  is  not 
climatic  advantage  as  affects  horticultural  growth,  alone,  which 
he  finds  there,  but  as  affecting  human  life  in  the  horticultural 
neighborhood. 

The  climate  and  landscape  surroundings  of  the  localities  re- 
ferred to  in  California,  and  the  facilities  for  pleasant  change, 
are  such  as  not  only  to  make  possible,  but  to  invite,  the  resi- 
dence of  a  more  intelligent,  energetic,  ingenious  and  thrifty 
class  of  people  to  engage  in  irrigation  than  are  found  elsewhere 
as  irrigators.  They  come  to  these  neighborhoods  with  capital 
— some  large,  some  small,  so  far  as  money  goes — but  nearly  all 
with  some  capital  in  money,  and  with  much  more  than  the  old- 
fashioned  agriculturist's  or  of  the  foreign  irrigator's  capital  of 
intelligence,  pluck,  and  business  training. 

It  is  the  presence  and  continued  coming  of  people  of  this 
character,  in  controlling  numbers,  that  makes  commercially 
practicable  the  construction  of  the  high  cost  irrigation  works, 
of  which  Alessandro  District  affords  the  present  best  example. 

We  have  not  been  indebted  to  either  irrigators,  farmers,  or 
horticulturists  from  abroad,  or  from  other  States,  nor  yet  to 
those  who  had  become  such  under  the  old  time  methods  and 
primitive  works  in  California,  for  the  development  of  that  high- 
er order  of  irrigation  water  service  and  culture  methods  which 
I  have  herein  described.  A  class  of  intelligent,  thrifty,  and 
industrious  business  men  came  here,  and  became  irrigators,  not 
only  because  of  business  enterprise,  but  on  account  of  the  pleas- 
ant and  healthful  surroundings  and  conditions  which  they 
found  in  a  number  of  possible  irrigation  neighborhoods. 

These  people,  finding  that  they  could  live  as  they  would 
want  to  live,  in  moderate  luxury  even,  in  these  neighborhoods, 
and  in  good  health  and  comfort,  also  found  dormant  energies 
and  undeveloped  wealth.  Being  possessed  of  the  business 
qualities  and  the  means,  they  have  made  far  greater  horticul- 


40  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

tural  successes,  and  correspondingly  greater  revenue,  from 
lands  than  an}*  set  of  mere  irrigators  or  fanners  ever  would  have 
achieved  here.  The}'  were  not  tied  up  by  prejudice,  former 
practice,  and  a  little  know-ledge  of  the  subject.  They  knew 
nothing  that  hampered  them  in  learning  to  make  the  most  out 
of  the  country.  They  had  the  means  to  try.  They  tried,  and 
again  tried,  and  succeeded.  They  are  a  class  of  people  wrho  can 
afford  to  pay  more  for  lands  than  a  people  who  have  had  less 
advantage  of  education  and  business  training,  and  have  been 
raised  in  communities  of  less  thrift ;  because  they  not  only  cul- 
tivate and  manage  better  on  the  lands  themselves,  but  enter  the 
markets  of  the  world  equipped  as  business  men,  and  make  rep- 
utations and  get  high  prices  for  their  products. 


While,  of  course,  by  far  the  greater  number  of  such  people 
coming  here  have  simply  settled  down  to  business  and  horticul- 
tural pursuits,  representative  spirits  have  taken  development 
enterprises  in  hand. 

The  expenditure  of  thirty  to  thirty-five  dollars  per  acre,  and 
even  more,  on  lands  worth  one  to  twenty  dollars,  dry,  in  works 
to  make  them  yield  large  margins  of  profit  over  interest  on  sev- 
eral hundred  dollars  per  acre,  and  in  rendering  possible  a  bus- 
iness at  once  pleasant  and  healthful,  as  well  as  profitable,  for 
cultivated  people,  has  been  to  such  men  not  only  a  solid  busi- 
ness proposition,  but  an  operation  for  enthusiasm.  This  con- 
stitutes the  business  of  high-class  irrigation  development.  Irri- 
gation, principally,  of  fruits  and  the  vine,  is  its  supplement. 

The  Alessandro  District  is  an  enterprise  purely  of  this  class. 
It  was  started  with  the  ownership  of  21,000  acres,  of  the  total 
25,500,  in  the  hands  of  a  speculative  company;  and  the  re- 
maining 4,500  acres  were  owned  by  less  than  a  dozen  individ- 
uals, who  themselves  wanted  to  serve  water  to  it  for  purposes 
of  speculation.  In  my  judgment,  these  circumstances  afford 
the  strongest  possible  assurance  of  the  district  success.  No 
mere  community  of  small  land  owners  can  compete  in  the  ini- 
tiation of  primary  development  enterprise,  with  a  well  managed 
speculative  company. 

In  the  first  place,  land  on  which  a  large  population  could 


Engineer's  Report.  41 

have  existed  without  irrigation  is  not  suitable  to  that  class  of 
enterprise  which  will  enhance  values  sufficiently  to  justify  con- 
struction of  the  works  here  necessary.  A  small  population  of 
men  of  no  special  business  experience  cannot  manage  such  an 
enterprise  to  as  good  advantage,  commercially,  as  a  powerfully 
organized  speculative  company.  The  Alessandro,  the  Ferris, 
and  some  other  irrigation  districts  now  developing  in  Southern 
California,  are  made  possible  by  the  existence  of  great  water- 
supply  companies,  which  can,  with  profit  to  themselves,  fur- 
nish water  to  the  districts  at  costs  which  their  lands  will  ulti- 
mately bear.  But  population  there  must  be  promptly,  when  a 
large  district  is  opened  up  for  irrigation,  else  lands  lie  dormant, 
and  the  interest  account  may  not  be  met.  To  secure  this  pop- 
ulation, extensive  advertising  and  keen  business  management 
are  essential.  These  are  only  assured  where  there  are  such  pow- 
erful organization  and  incentives  as  speculative  enterprise  of 
this  character  affords. 

In  the  next  place,  no  such  complete  and  perfect  works  of  dis- 
tribution as  those  going  into  Alessaudro  District  ever  would 
have  been  attempted,  but  for  the  unification  of  the  speculative 
advantage  to  be  gained  by  them.  These  works  are  put  in  to 
sell  the  lands  at  high  figures,  and  they  will  do  it, — are  doing 
it.  There  was  no  division  of  opinion  on  the  question  of  build- 
ing them,  no  community  to  be  consulted,  no  vote  to  be  had. 
The  speculative  company  builds  them,  and  gives  them  to  the 
district.  The  purchasers  of  land — the  settlers — pay  for  them 
in  advanced  land  prices.  The  better  works  enhance  actual 
values  much  more  than  the  cost  difference  over  ordinary  con- 
struction. And,  moreover,  system  and  economy  of  construc- 
tion keep  cost  much  below  that  probable  under  community 
management.  The  othtr  large  land  owners  take  the  cue.  The 
improvement  becomes  complete  in  the  district.  A  specially  de- 
sirable and  thrifty  class  of  settlers  is  thus  drawn  in  ;  and  dis- 
trict success  is  assured. 

Finally,  the  speculative  company  has  an  interest  in  the  suc- 
cess of  the  district  beyond  the  mere  selling  of  its  lands.  It  re- 
mains a  water-supply  company  to  the  district,  and  the  rates  it 
is  to  receive  under  its  contracts  with  the  district  itself  and  with 
the  persons  to  whom  it  sells  lands  are  such  as  to  leave  this  a 


42  Ales  sand  ro  Irrigation  District. 

profitable  business.  Hence,  its  interests  will  prompt  that  con- 
tinued effort  which  a  great  corporation  can  put  forth  in  the  in- 
terest of  a  neighborhood,  but  which  a  new  and  weak  commu- 
nity can  not,  to  advantage,  exercise  for  itself.  The  objection  to 
water  monopoly  raised  in  connection  with  irrigation  develop- 
ment in  this  country  is  not  honestly  applicable  in  cases  of  this 
particular  kind.  In  my  judgment,  such  developments  could  not, 
for  reasons  in  part  only  given  above,  be  economically  and  suc- 
cessfully realized  without  it.  As  to  the  subsequent  burden  of 
water-rentals  or  annual  payments  :  although  such  as  will  be 
remunerative  to  a  company,  they  are  not  found  burdensome  on 
these  communities.  The  advantages  gained  more  than  offset 
them. 


The  fact,  therefore,  that  speculative  enterprise  has  been  at 
the  bottom  of  Alessandro  District  formation  and  promotion  not 
only  accounts,  in  great  measure,  for  the  high  character  of  its 
works,  but,  to  my  mind,  is  a  point  in  favor  of  its  probable  suc- 
cess as  a  community  or  settlement. 

This  class  of  works  would  not  be  possible,  commercially,  in 
any  of  the  old  irrigation  countries  of  Europe,  Asia  or  Africa, 
and  I  doubt  whether  as  great  expense  and  minute  thorough- 
ness are  justified  by  conditions  in  our  own  country,  outside  of 
California. 

Consider  for  a  moment  the  supplying,  delivery  and  distribu- 
tion of  water  to  these  Alessandro  lands.  It  is  brought  in  a 
steel  pipe  under  high  pressure,  from  a  watershed  not  tributary 
to  the  valley,  a  distance  of  ten  miles  ;  then  it  is  put  through  a 
concrete-lined  tunnel  about  half  a  mile  in  length,  piercing  a 
dividing  mountain  ridge  ;  then  in  concrete-lined  ditches,  steel 
pipes,  and  "iron-stone"  cement-laid  pipes,  two  to  fourteen 
miles  additional,  to  the  commanding  corner  of  each  twenty- 
acre  tract  on  which  it  is  to  be  used.  Practically,  none  of  it  is 
lost.  It  is  brought  from  its  mountain  home,  pure,  sweet,  and 
quite  cool.  It  is  delivered  fit  for  domestic  use.  It  will  be  so 
used  up  to  the  limit  of  demand. .  And  even  in  its  distribution 
within  the  little  fields  and  orchards,  it  is  conducted  in  pipes, 
or  cement  or  brick  ditches  or  flumes,  to  within  a  few  feet  of 


Engineer's  Report.  43. 

the  especial  square  yard  of  ground  into  which  it  is  permitted  to 
soak  in  irrigation. 

There  are  as  yet  no  works  of  as  high  an  economic  grade  pro- 
jected elsewhere,  to  serve  large  areas  of  land,  as  are  those  of  the 
California  series  into  which  this  Alessandro  District  system 
enters. 

The  company  which  has  contracted  to  deliver  water  to  the 
district  constructs  the  supply  arteries  of  the  system.  The  dis- 
trict is  one  of  its  customers.  The  district  works  are  simple, 
easy  of  construction,  cheap  of  maintenance,  and  will  be  eco- 
nomical of  operation  and  administration,  and  lasting  in  charac- 
ter. They  consist  of  hard-burned  "iron-stone,"  or  vitrified 
clay  pipes,  laid  with  cement  joints,  outlets  of  similar  materials 
with  iron  shutters,  measuring  boxes  of  concrete  or  vitrified 
clay,  with  iron  weirs,  and  the  standard  (town  supply)  water 
pressure-gates  at  outlets  from  main  pipes. 


CONDITION  OF  THE  WORK. 

For  the  reason  that  the  district  is  not  constructing  any 
works,  it  is  not  possible  to  present  a  CONSTRUCTION  PROGRESS 
STATEMENT  such  as  has  been  made  a  part  of  reports  hereto- 
fore submitted  by  the  writer,  on  other  districts. 

The  Bear  Valley  Company's  work  is  being  pushed  forward 
with  every  apparent  effort  at  such  haste  as  thoroughness  will  ad- 
mit of.  It  has  expended  over  $400,000  in  supply  and  delivery 
works,  intended  for  its  customers  in  this  valley.  It  has  ex- 
pended over  $180,000  on  works  within  the  limits  of  Alessandro 
District,  and  of  this  amount  more  than  $80,000  has  gone  into 
distribution  works  which  will  become  the  property  of  the  dis- 
trict. Over  4000  acres  of  land  may  now  be  served  as  finally 
intended,  and  the  work  is  progressing  as  fast  as  materials  can 
be  delivered  by  their  sub -contractors. 

PROBABLE  IRRIGATION  EFFECT. 

To  one  who  has  read  the  foregoing  pages,  it  may  seem  alto- 
gether superfluous  to  say  anything  further  as  to  the  probable 
effect  of  irrigation  in  the  Alessandro  District.  The  reports,  ot 


44  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

which  this  is  a  single  one  only,  are  attempted  to  be  made  un- 
der a  system  such  that  they  may  be  compared  as  between  them- 
selves, and  used  for  reference  singly.  It  is  an  aim  to  have 
matter  of  each  certain  class  under  its  heading,  even  though, 
incidentally,  it  has  found  place  in  other  articles,  so  that  repeti- 
tion is  made  necessary  where  the  caption  would  lead  one  to  find 
it.  Hence,  at  the  risk  of  the  charge  of  prolixity,  I  again  re- 
view here  the  horticultural  outlook  for  Alessandro  District,  as 
consequent  upon  irrigation. 

Practically,  there  had  been  before  the  district  work  com- 
menced less  than  1000  acres  in  cultivation  of  the  lands  now  in 
the  district.  A  little  grain  was  raised.  A  struggling  orchard 
and  vineyard  or  two  were  found.  The  remaining  lands  afford- 
ed a  scanty  pasture  to  sheep  and  cattle  for  part  of  each  year. 

Irrigation  is  changing  this  completely.  The  orange  and  lemon, 
the  olive  and  fig,  and  the  vine  are  occupying  the  higher  and 
more  sloping  lands.  Deciduous  fruits  of  many  kinds,  and  es- 
pecially the  pear,  with  alfalfa  and  field  vegetables  on  small  areas, 
will  be  grown  on  the  lower  and  flatter  lands  of  comparatively 
heavy  soil. 

The  agricultural  change  is  now  progressing.  It  will  be  as 
complete  and  radical  as  any  such  change  could  be.  The  Ales- 
sandro District  lands,  lately  a  waste,  almost,  are  becoming  or- 
chard lands,  vine  lands,  and  green  pastures.  Alfalfa  for  hay, 
and  field  vegetables  will  be  grown  for  home  consumption.  Cit- 
rus and  deciduous  fruits,  olives  and  the  produce  of  the  vine , 
will  find  a  market  by  rail,  chiefly  far  from  this  state. 


LITIGATION  AND  LOCAL  SENTIMENT. 

There  has  been  no  litigation  about  Alessandro  District  affairs. 
There  has  been  no  difference  of  opinion  as  to  any  question  of 
vital  importance  touching  the  district,  either  among  those  who 
live  in  it,  or  those  who  are  interested  in  its  lands.  The  senti- 
ment of  voters  and  land-owners,  alike,  is  all  in  favor  of  irriga- 
tion by  the  means  adopted,  and  on  the  basis  of  the  bonded  in- 
debtednees  it  makes  necessary.  The  life  of  this  country  depends 
on  irrigation.  With  it,  riches  come.  Without  it,  poverty. 
Alessandro  is  in  favor  of  irrigation,  and  is  able  and  will  be  able 
to  pay  for  it  as  payment  becomes  due. 


Engineer's  Report.  45 


CONCLUSION. 

The  Irrigation  District  reports,  of  which  this  is  but  a  single 
one,  are  being  made  with  the  view,  so  far  as  the  writer  can 
give  them  character,  of  stating  and  explaining  the  physical  and 
engineering  problems,  describing  the  works,  and  estimating 
the  cost  of  irrigation  to  the  several  districts,  with  the  object  of 
exposing  the  business  status  and  prospects  of  each  one.  The 
information  is,  as  I  understand,  desired  in  this  form  for  those 
who  may  contemplate  having  relations  with  any  such  district, 
or  may  desire  to  invest  in  or  handle  its  bonds. 

There  are  five  general  questions  which  may  affect  the  value 
of  such  securities  : 

I.  Has  the  district  issuing  them  been  given  due  authoriza- 
tion and  power  so  to  do  ?     Is  the  law  under  which  it  is 
formed,   constitutional  ?     Is  the  organization  one  which 
can  be  granted   such  power  ?     Has  it  been  granted  the 
power  ? 

II.  In  the  case  of  the  district  whose  securities  are  under  con- 
sideration, have  all  the  proceedings  taken  under  this  law, 
up  to  and  including  the  issue  and  sale  of  the  special  bonds 
in  question,  been  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
law  itself? 

III.  Is  the  realty  security  offered  under  the  law,  commensur- 
ate in  value  with  the  debt  proposed  to  be  put  upon  the  dis- 
trict to  carry  out  its  irrigation  enterprise  ? 

IV.  Is  the  enterprise  itself,  in  which  it  is  proposed  to  use  the 
money  raised  on  the  district  bonds,  a  good  one,  from  en- 
gineering and  irrigation  standpoints  ?     Can  it  be  made  to 
succeed  within  the  limit  of  cost  contemplated,  or  within  a 
limit  commensurate  with  benefits  which  the  people  of  the 
district  may  expect  to  receive  ? 

V.  Are  other  conditions  with  respect  to  this  district,  and  its 
enterprise,  such  as  to  render  business   prospects  therein 
good  ?     Will  its  people  probably  be  prosperous  under  the 
burden  of  debt  they  take  on  themselves  for  this  purpose  ; 


46  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

and  hence,  probably  be  inclined  to  pay  the  interest  and 
principal  of  this  bonded  debt,  without  making  trouble  for 
their  creditors  ? 

It  is  understood,  of  course,  that  the  constitutional  and  legal 
points  raised  by  the  first  interrogatory,  and  those  of  law  and 
procedure  raised  by  the  second,  are  foreign  to  the  aspect  of  the 
subject  to  be  viewed  in  this  report. 

The  writer  hereof  undertakes,  for  the  case  in  hand,  to  defin- 
itely answer  the  third  and  fourth  questions,  and  also  to  throw 
some  light  upon,  and  express  an  opinion  on,  the  points  raised 
by  the  fifth. 


In  my  opinion,  based  on  facts  and  reasons  stated  in  and  ap- 
parent from  the  foregoing  review  of  this  enterprise, — 

The  marketable  value  of  the  lands  of  this  district  is  now 
much  in  excess  of  the  bonded  debt  placed  upon  it  for  the  pur- 
chase of  water  rights  and  delivery  of  water  to  it. 

This  is  a  specially  favorable  area  for  irrigation  enterprise  of 
the  character  here  projected,  and  one  suitable  to  be  embraced 
in  an  'irrigation  district. 

Irrigation  industry  should  succeed  in  this  district.  The  lands 
with  the  water  rights  should  be  at  least  doubled  in  value,  as  the 
effect  of  it  in  a  very  few  years  ;  and  within  another  few  years, 
as  population  presents  itself  and  demand  grows  for  the  prod- 
uct, these  values  should  enhance  as  much  more  in  addition. 

The  values  here  referred  to  are  those  based  on  ability  to  pro- 
duce and  support  populations  ;  and  not  values  based  on  the  de- 
sire of  independent  people  to  possess  beautiful  grounds,  or  to 
engage  in  fancy  farming. 

The  property  proposed  to  be  pledged  under  the  law  is  ample, 
and  with  a  large  margin  in  this  case,  as  security  for  a  bouded 
•debt  of  $765,000,  or  $30  per  acre  on  the  district ;  which  is  all 
there  is  any  necessity,  under  existing  circumstances,  for  plac- 
ing on  it  for  its  irrigation  enterprise. 

The  district  itself  has  no  engineering  scheme.  The  water- 
supply  contracting  company  constructs  its  own  works  and  gives 
the  use  of  them  to  the  district  for  its  service,  in  return  for  its 
bonds.  The  land  owners  construct  distribution  works  of  high 
•class,  and  present  them  to  the  district. 


Engineer's  Report.  47 

The  water  supply  for  the  district  is  contracted  to  be  delivered 
by  a  great  water-supplying  company,  having  a  large  plant,  com- 
manding extensive  water  rights  and  privileges,  possessing  a 
large  capital,  and  rapidly  extending  its  scope  and  apparent 
strength. 

The  conditions  generally  now  present,  and  those  likely 
from  ample  precedent  to  prevail,  are  of  character  specially 
favorable  to  that  social  and  business  result  in  the  Alessandro 
District  which  should  tend  to  make  it  a  goodJHHH.  debtor. 


Any  discussion  of  the  principles  of  Irrigation  District  laws, 
or  the  merits  of  that  which  California  has  enacted,  and  under 
which  this  Alessandro  District  (and  about  thirty  others)  has 
been  formed,  would,  of  course,  be  out  of  place  here.  That  is 
the  political  side  of  the  question,  with  which  the  writer  in  his 
present  capacity,  can  have  nothing  to  do. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

WM.    HAM.    HALL. 
SAN  FRANCISCO,  CAL.,  Oct.  ist,  1891. 


298958 


48 


Alessandro  Irrigation  District, 


Exhibit  I. 


ALESSANDRO  IRRIGATION  DISTRICT. 


Works  Construction,  to  Date,  Within  the  District.     By  the 
B.  V.  I.  Co. 


STATEMENT  OF  EXPENDITURES. 
Sept.  15,  1891. 


Excavation 
and 

Refilling. 

Materials 
of  all 
Kinds. 

Labor. 

Totals. 

Main   Canal—  On  Redlands 
Boulevard  —  South  end  ol 
Tunnel  to  Distrib.  Res'r.  . 

$1,634  79 

$1,543   40 

$865  55 

$4,043  74 

Distributing  Reservoir  

1,290  oo 

267   25 

90  oo 

1,647   25 

Main  Flume—  On  Redlands 
Boulevard  —  Distributing 
Res'r  to  Hemlock  Ave  

167  99 

i,7"  85 

643  46 

2,523   30 

Main  Flume  —  On  Ironwood 
Avenue  —  From   Redlands 

33568 
1,724  38 

2,269  48 
16,406  oo 

321  46 

112    20 

2,926  62 
18,242    58 

Main   Steel  Fife—  On  Cot- 
tonwood  Ave.  —  Redlands 
Boulevard  to  Lasalle  St.  .  . 

Main    Vitrified  Pipe  —  -  On 
Grevillea  Ave.  —  Redlands 
Boulevard  to  Judson  St  .  . 

5,638  52 

34,222    58 

1,132    91 

40,994  oi 

Main  Steel  Pipe—  On  diag- 
onal line—  Judson  St.   to 
Frederick  St  

1,627  68 
700  67 

16,700   42 
4,670    50 

31  oo 
343  6  1 

18,359  10 

5,714  78 

Br.  Main  Vitrified  Pipe—  On 
Quincy  St.  —  Main  Canal 
to  A.O.G.  &  F.  Co.  Tract 

Lateral  Pipes  —  Distributar- 
ies —  On  Streets  from  The- 
odore to  Heacock    

20,985  24 

53,942  01 

5,099  05 

80,026  30 

Moreno  Town  Service  Pipes  . 
Totals  

490  64 

5,704  60 

5  oo 

6,200  24 

$34,592  59 

$137,438  09 

$8,644  24 

$180,677  92 

JAMES  T.  TAYLOR. 

Engineer  in  Charge. 


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49 


50  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

Exhibit  III. 

ALESSANDRO  IRRIGATION  DISTRICT. 

FINANCIAL  STATEMENT. 
Sept.  ist,  1891. 


General  Fund. 

1890^1 

Receipts  (no  taxes  yet  collected) $645  oo 

Disbursements 443  85 

Balance $201   15 

Bond  Fund. 

1890-91 

Receipts  (no  taxes  yet  collected) None 

Disbursements  (no  interest  yet  due) None 


Balance 

Construction  Fund. 

1890^1 

Receipts — Sale  of  bonds  at  par $765,000 

Disbursements — Paid  for  water-rights  and  delivery.  .    765,000 


Balance None 

Summarization . 

General                Bond          Construction  Total 
Fund.                 Fund.                Fund. 

Receipts $645  oo       $765,000  $765,645  oo 

Disbursements..     44385       765,000  765,44385 

Balances  .  .  .  $201   15  $201   15 
[Signed] 

B.  W.  BROWN,  Treasurer. 


Exhibits.  5 1 

Exhibit  IV. 

ALESSANDRO  IRRIGATION  DISTRICT. 


ASSESSMENT  AND  TAX  STATEMENT. 


ASSESSED  VALUES  OF.  AREAS  COVERED.       VALUATION,  iSgo'-gi. 

Farming  lands $2,396,819  oo 

Improvements  thereon 1,520  oo 

Town  property 18,542  oo 

Improvements  thereon 200  oo 

Railway  right-of-way  track  and 

depot  grounds 18,955  31 


Total  in  district $2,436,036  31 

ASSESSED   VALUES   OF   FARMING   LANDS. 

Average  of  district  per  acre $  95  87 

Highest  for  40  acres 100  oo 

Lowest  for  40  acres 33  50 

Highest  for  320  acres 100  oo 

Lowest  for  320  acres 37  45 

ASSESSMENTS. 

Rates  of  levy  for  district  purposes  (per  $100  of  val- 
uation)  $          2  25 

Total  amount  levied 54)384  32 

Total  amount  collected  (collections  not  commenced)      Nothing 

TAX   RATES. 

State  and  county  (per  $100  of  valuation) $i  60 

District 225 


Total $3  85 

RAILWAY   ASSESSED. 

Mileage 3  55 

Rate  per  mile $  5>°54  75 

Total  valuation 18,955  31 

[Signed] 

JOHN  T.  LEONARD,  Assessor. 


52  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 


Exhibit  V. 

ALESSANDRO  IRRIGATION  DISTRICT. 


BOND  ISSUE  AND  INTEREST  STATEMENT. 


OFFICE  OF  THE  BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS, 

ALESSANDRO  IRRIGATION  DISTRICT. 
MORENO,  CAL.,  Sept.  i,  1891. 

This  is  to  certify,  that  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Alessan- 
dro District  have,  up  to  date,  disposed  of  bonds  of  the  district 
to  the  total  par  value  of  seven  hundred  and  sixty-five  thousand 
($765,000)  dollars.  These  were  all  paid  to  the  Bear  Valley  Ir- 
rigation Compan)*,  at  par,  for  51,000  Class  B  i-acre  Water-right 
Certificates,  under  the  terms  of  the  contract  with  that  company, 
dated  May  6th,  1891. 

[Signed] 

GEO.  H.  KELSEY,  Secretary. 


A'ofes.  53 


Appendix  A. 
NOTES. 

NOTE  i. — tands  may  be  of  good  soil,  and  upon  a  plain  whose  general  form  and 
slopes  are  suitable  to  irrigation,  yet  still  be  so  rough  in  details  of  surface  as  to  cause 
comparatively  much  expense  in  preparation  for  irrigation.  Again,  the  soils  and 
general  appearance  of  a  plain  may  seem  favorable  to  irrigation,  and  yet,  larger  irreg- 
ularities of  form  in  the  ground  surface  —  long  ridges  and  "  coulees,"  swells  and 
"  draws  " — dividing  the  plain  into  eccentric  subdistricts,  and  making  excessive  ground 
slopes,  locally — may  be  so  pronounced  and  prevalent  as  to  necessitate  much  extra 
expense  in  carrying  out  an  efficient  distribution  system,  economical  of  maintenance  and 
in  operation.  The  Alessandro  District  lands  are,  in  large  part,  quite  free  from  these 
drawbacks.  They  are,  as  a  whole,  favorable  to  economical  distribution  and  low  costs 
of  preparation  for  irrigation. 

Again,  to  be  economically  handled  under  irrigation,  a  soil  must  be  mellow,  friable, 
receptive,  and  retentive  of  moisture,  and  must  not  ' '  bake,"  or  form  a  hard  £rust  after 
irrigation.  Most  soils  thus  favorable  are  not  specially  rich  —  are  light  and  sandy. 
The  Alessandro  District  slopes  are  rich,  and,  for  the  most  part,  not  light,  but  seem  still 
to  possess  the  above  qualities  favorable  to  working  under  irrigation. 

NOTE  2. — Some  rainfall  records  and  estimates  of  precipitation  in  this  southern  coun- 
try are  withheld  from  publication  with  this  report,  to  be  embodied  with  an  opinion  on 
the  water-supply  of  the  region  generally,  and  now  in  course  of  preparation. 

NOTE  3. — Data  and  statistics  of  crops  and  prices — the  practical  money-making  re- 
sults of  irrigation  in  this  region — are  purposely  omitted  from  this  report.  They  only 
go  to  establish  values,  and  the  writer  feels  that  the  statements  herein  on  this  point  are 
quite  sufficiently  conservative,  and  justified  by  broad  and  well-known  precedents,  to  be 
accepted  without  this  burdensome  species  of  demonstration. 

NOTE  4. — From  a  business  standpoint,  the  necessity  for  irrigation  in  any  region  de- 
pends on  what  it  is  desired  to  accomplish  therein.  A  region  may  well  support  10  people 
per  square  mile  without  artificial  watering,  but  to  support  100  people,  irrigation  would 
become  an  absolute  necessity.  And  these  figures  may  be  much  varied.  Some  dry 
regions,  well  cultivated,  as  in  wheat-growing  sections  of  this  State,  support  not  over  5 
people  per  square  mile.  Some  irrigated  regions,  as  quarters  of  the  valley  of  the  Po  in 
Italy,  support  350  people  per  square  mile; 

The  necessity  for  irrigation  for  the  support  of  such  dense,  or  even  what  we  may  call 
"  full"  populations— from  100  to  120  people,  directly  dependent  on  agriculture,  to  the 
square  mile — is  not  governed  alone  by  the  quantity  of  rainfall  a  country  receives,  nor 
is  it  to  be  determined  exclusively  by  the  fact  of  unproductiveness.  A  country  may 
have  ample  rainfall  and  yet  need  irrigation  to  support  such  population,  as  much  as  one 
having  practically  none  at  all.  Conditions  of  soils  andsubsoils,  of  rainfall  distribution, 
humidity  and  others  of  meteorological  character,  may  be  such  as  to  turn  the  scale.  There 
are  lands  in  Northern  California  tillable  and  rich  in  soil  ingredients,  which  will  not  sup- 
port five  people  per  square  mile  under  a  rainfall  of  twenty-four  inches.  There  are  oth- 
ers in  Southern  California,  and  not  "  moist  "  lands  either,  which  support  twenty  people 
per  square  mile  under  a  rainfall  of  twelve  inches,  and  without  irrigation. 


54  Alessandro  Irrigation   District. 

NOTE  5. — There  is  no  country  where  practical  agricultural  worthlessness  and  wealth 
(interpret  the  words  as  strongly  as  we  may)  lie  more  closely  together  than  in  Southern 
California.  The  presence  of  worthlessness  is  apparently  essential  to  the  existence  of 
local  wealth.  If  all  this  country  were  irrigated,  and  so  not  worthless,  there  would  be 
little  wealth  produced  by  any  of  it.  The  atmosphere  of  an  immense  spread  of  surround- 
ing dry  country  is  essential  to  the  peculiar  wealth-producing  ability  of  the  artificially 
moistened  oases. 

There  is  no  country  where  success,  agriculturally,  or  rather  horticul,turally,  is  or 
may  be  so  apparently  signal ;  none,  on  the  other  hand,  where  failure  often  is  so  dis- 
mal and  complete.  Possibilities  are  to  be  judged  of  here,  not  by  the  casual  farmers 
glance,  but  by  broader  views,  which  reach,  perhaps,  to  some  distant  mountain  range, 
and  consider  hydraulic  problems  much  above  the  common. 

XOTE  6.— The  steadr  advancement  now  found  in  Southern  California  is  due  to  hor- 
ticultural growth.  The  town  lot,  speculative  craze  of  1885-88  is  over  with. 

NOTE  7. — The  "  miner's  inch"  is  a  measure  or  unit  of  water  flow  now  much  used  in 
connection  with  irrigation  in  California,  and  is  about  the  equivalent  of  one-fiftieth  of  a 
cubic  foot  per  second. 

NOTE  8. — "  Water  duty"  refers  to  the  extent  of  service  which  any  unit  volume  of 
supply  will  perform  in  irrigation.  The  cubic  foot  per  second,  or  "  second-foot,"  is  the 
unit  volume  ordinarily  referred  to  in  speaking  of  duty  under  large  irrigation  projects 
having  open  canals  of  supply.  The  "  miner's  inch  "  is  more  often  used  in  Southern 
California,  where  works  are  of  a  higher  class,  and  volumes  handled  are  much  less. 

According  to  the  character  of  cultivation,  of  soil  and  sub-soil,  method  of  irrigation 
and  kind  of  works  of  delivery  and  distribution,  the  duty  of  water  varies  in  California, 
even  under  good  management,  between  50  acres  to  the  second-foot,  or  i  acre  to  the 
miner's  inch,  and  10  acres  to  the  inch,  or  500  acres  per  foot  per  second. 

NOTE  9. — The  value  of  this  class  of  irrigation  depends  on  the  service  of  just  as 
much  water  as,  and  no  more  than,  the  soil  will  take  without  starting  lateral  percolation 
or  saturating  it  down  to  ground  water.  When  these  effects  are  produced  this  irriga- 
tion is  excessive  and  will  defeat  its  object-  the  production  of  sweet  fruit.  Young  trees 
thus  habitually  over-irrigated  always  demand  such  excess  thereafter,  when  grown. 

NOTE  10. — The  writer  does  not  assume  the  role  of  consulting  or  advisory  engineer, 
in  this  reporting  duty.  No  criticism  will  be  made  on  works  or  projects  unless  so  bad 
as  to  affect  the  value  of  district  securities. 

NOTE  ii. — Irrigation  waters  have  cost,  delivered  (not  distributed)  in  Southern  Cali- 
fornia, in  good  works,  from  $50  to  $400  per  miner's  inch  of  continuous  flow,  and  have 
been  sold  at  materially  higher  rates. 

NOTE  12. — Values  of  lands  of  the  classes  here  under  consideration,  although  based 
o.i  ability  to  yield  revenue,  yet  depend,  while  a  country  is  developing  and  being  brought 
under  cultivation,  upon  demand.  It  takes  capital  to  bring  an  orange  or  olive  grove  in- 
to bearing.  Those  who  have  enough  means  and  desire  to  take  up  these  industries  are 
not  always  equal  in  numbers  to  the  supply  of  lands  served  with  water  and  offered. 
Consequently,  there  are  times  of  depression  in  irrigation  development  enterprise. 

NOTE  13. — And  after  development  of  the  irrigation  industry,  there  must  be,  as  in  all 
business,  periods  of  comparatively  low  demand  for  its  products.  It  is  not  believed  by  the 
writer,  though,  that  there  is  any  danger  of  over-production  of  the  principal  fruits  of  irri- 


Notes. 


55 


gation  in  Southern  California.  There  may  be  temporary  gluts  of  markets,  and  losses 
accordingly,  but  better  transportation  facilities  and  more  thorough  handling  in  distrib- 
ution, it  is  believed,  will  profitably  place  Southern  California  fruits  for  many  long  years 
to  come. 

NOTE  14.— Commercial  values  of  lands  in  Alessandro  District  might  well  be  placed  30 
per  cent  higher  than  the  $150,  $300  and  $450  per  acre,  assumed  as  the  sub-basis  for 
figures  at  succeeding  periods  in  the  bond  redemption  illustration  submitted. 

NOTE  15.— The  value  of  lands  "  as  mortgage  securities  "  depends  on,  and  is  gen- 
erally less  than,  their  commercial  value.  Saving  banks  in  California  lend  on  lands  from 
30  to  60  per  cent,  according  to  circumstances  of  their  secure  values,  or  the  amounts  for 
which  they  could  be  sold  at  forced  sale. 

NOTE  16. — Comparing,  for  instance,  Alessandro  District  works  with  those  of  Central 
District, —  the  former  will  deliver  and  distribute  in  pipes  to  every  lo-acre  tract, —  the 
latter  in  open  ditches  to  every  640  or  320  acres  only.  Hence,  a  potent  reason  for  the 
wide  difference  in  cost  of  distribution. 


56  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 


Appendix  B. 
WATER  RIGHT  AND  DELIVERY  CONTRACT. 

THIS  AGREEMENT,  made  and  entered  into  the  6th  day  of  May,  A.  D.  1891,  by 
and  between  the  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company,  a  corporation,  having  its  prin- 
cipal place  of  business  at  Redlands,  in  the  County  of  San  Bernardino,  State  of 
California,  the  party  of  the  first  part,  and  the  Alessandro  Irrigation  District,  a 
public  corporation,  in  said  County  of  San  Bernardino,  State  of  California,  the 
party  of  the  second  part, 

WlTNESSETH  :  That  the  said  party  of  the  first  part,  for  and  in  consideration  of 
the  undertakings  of  the  said  party  of  the  second  part,  hereinafter  entered  into, 
has  agreed  and  does  agree  to  and  with  said  party  of  the  second  part  to  sell  and 
transfer  to  said  party  of  the  second  part,  and  does  hereby  sell  to  said  party  of 
the  second  part,  fifty-one  thousand  (51,000)  Class  "B"  Acre  Water  Right  Cer- 
tificates, issued  by  said  party  of  the  first  part,  and  the  said  party  of  the  first  part 
further  agrees  to  deliver  the  water  represented  by  said  fifty-one  thousand  Class 
"  B  "  acre  water  right  certificates  at  any  point  below  the  south  end  of  the  tunnel 
constructed  by  the  said  party  of  the  first  part  in  the  southeast  quarter  (S.  E.  X)  °f 
Section  Twenty-six  (26),  Township  Two  (2)  South,  Range  Three  (3)  West,  San 
Bernardino  base  and  meridian,  along  the  line  of  the  said  Bear  Valley  Irrigation 
Company's  canal  and  pipe  line,  running  southeasterly  from  the  south  end  of  said 
tunnel  to  Redlands  Boulevard,  within  said  Alessandro  Irrigation  District ;  thence 
south  along  Redlands  Boulevard  to  the  southeast  corner  of  Block  Thirty  (30)  of 
Map  No.  I  of  the  Bear  Valley  and  Alessandro  Development  Company,  of  record  in 
the  office  of  the  Recorder  of  said  County  of  San  Bernardino,  State  of  California  ; 
thence  westerly  along  or  near  Grevillea  Avenue  to  a  point  at  or  near  the  south- 
west corner  of  Block  Twenty-five  (25)  according  to  said  map;  thence  in  a  north- 
westerly direction  to  a  point  near  the  northwest  corner  of  Block  Eighteen  (18) 
in  said  Alessandro  Irrigation  District ;  thence  in  a  southwesterly  direction  to  the 
southwest  corner  of  Block  Two  Hundred  and  Nineteen  (219)  according  to  said 
map ;  thence  by  a  line  to  be  hereafter  located,  to  a  point  at  or  near  the  southeast 
corner  of  Bleck  Three  Hundred  and  Fifteen  (315)  according  to  said  map,  or  along 
any  other  main  line  to  be  hereafter  constructed  by  said  Bear  Valley  Irrigation 
Company,  provided  that  the  said  party  of  the  first  part,  in  delivering  water  along 
any  main  pipe  lines  referred  to  herein,  shall  be  obliged  to  provide  no  greater 
capacity  than  is  sufficient  for  the  water  represented  by  two  of  the  aforesaid  cer- 
tificates per  acre  for  the  lands  lying  below  said  main. 

And  the  said  party  of  the  second  part  hereby  agrees  to  and  with  the  said  party 
of  the  first  part  to  purchase  from  the  said  party  of  the  first  part  the  fifty-one  thous- 
and (51,000)  Class  "  B  "  acre  water  right  certificates  issued  by  the  said  party  of 
the  first  part,  and  also  agrees,  in  payment  therefor,  to  transfer  and  deliver  abso- 
utely  to  said  party  of  the  first  part  the  bonds  of  the  said  Alessandro  Irrigation 
District,  caused  to  be  issued  by  the  Board  of  Directors  of  said  district,  pursuant 


Water  Right  and  Delivery  Contract.  57 

to  a  vote  of  the  qualified  electors  of  the  said  district  at  a  special  election  duly 
held  therein  on  the  lyth  day  of  March,  A.  D.  1891,  to  the  amount  of  seven  hun- 
dred and  sixty-five  thousand  dollars  ($765,000)  at  their  par  value,  all  of  said 
bonds  to  be  of  issue  No.  I,  and  to  bear  date  of  May  6th,  A.  D.  1891,  payable  in 
ten  series,  and  bearing  interest  at  the  rate  of  6  per  cent  per  annum,  payable  semi- 
annually  on  the  first  days  of  January  and  July  of  each  year. 

And  it  is  further  expressly  agreed  and  understood  by  and  between  the  parties 
hereto,  and  as  a  part  of  this  agreement,  that  the  use  of  water  represented  by  four 
thousand  (4,000)  of  the  aforesaid  acre  water  right  certificates  shall  commence  on 
the  first  day  of  June,  A.  D.  1891  ; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  six  thousand  (6,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1892  ; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  six  thousand  (6,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1893  ; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  six  thousand  (6,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1894; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  six  thousand  (6,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1895  ; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  six  thousand  (6,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1896  ; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  six  thousand  (6,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1897  ; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  six  thousand  (6,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1898  ; 

That  the  use  of  water  represented  by  five  thousand  (5,000)  of  said  acre  water 
right  certificates  shall  commence  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.  1899  ;  and  that 
the  water  represented  by  each  of  the  aforesaid  fifty-one  thousand  (51,000)  acre 
water  right  certificates  shall  be  ready  for  use  thereon  on  the  day  on  which  such 
use  thereof,  as  stipulated  above,  is  to  commence,  and  continuously  thereafter. 

And  that  the  first  semi-annual  payment  of  One  Dollar  and  Thirty-nine  Cents 
($1.39)  to  become  due  and  payable  on  each  of  said  certificates  shall  commence 
on  the  first  day  of  the  month  of  October,  of  the  year  in  which  the  use  of  water  on 
such  certificates  is  to  commence,  as  stipulated  above,  and  that  the  further  semi- 
annual payments  of  One  Dollar  and  Thirty-nine  Cents  ($1.39)  on  such  certificates 
shall  be  made  on  the  first  days  of  April  and  October  of  each  year  thereafter. 

And  it  is  further  agreed  by  and  between  the  parties  hereto,  and  as  a  part  of  this 
agreement,  that  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  said  Alessandro  Irrigation  District 
shall  have  the  right,  on  the  first  day  of  April,  A.  D.,  1893,  an^  on  the  first  day  of 
April  in  each  year  thereafter,  to  have  an  increase  in  the  number  of  the  aforesaid 
Acre  Water  Right  Certificates  on  which  the  use  of  water  shall  commence  in  such 
year,  in  accordance  with  the  foregoing  stipulations,  until  the  use  of  water  shall 
have  commenced  on  all  of  the  aforesaid  certificates  ;  provided  that  the  said  Boa'd 
of  Directors  shall  notify  the  said  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company  of  such  desired 
increase  at  least  six  months  prior  to  the  time  when  such  increase  is  desired. 

IN  WITNESS  WHEREOF,  the  said  parties  hereto  have  caused  this  contract  to 
be  executed  by  their  respective  Presidents  and  Secretaries,  and  the  seals  of  said 
parties  to  be  hereto  affixed,  the  day  and  year  first  above  written. 


58  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

Exhibit  "  I." 

Total  Issue,   100,000.  Xo Ctfs. 

CLASS  B.     BEAR  VALLEY  IRRIGATION  COMPANY. 


ACRE-WATER-RIGHT   CERTIFICATE. 


In  CONSIDERATION  OF DOLLARS,  in  hand  paid,  and  the  pay- 
ment on  each  certificate  issued  of  $1.39  on  the  first  day  of  April,  and  $1.39  on 
the  first  day  of  October,  of  each  year,  the  BEAR  VALLEY  IRRIGATION  COMPANY, 
a  corporation,  organized  under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  California,  and  having 
its  principal  place  of  business  at  Redlands,  San  Bernardino  County,  Cal., 

hereby  issues  to Class  B,  Bear  Valley  Irrigation  Company  Acre 

Water  Right  Certificates.  Each  Certificate  is  issued  subject  to  the  contract  be- 
tween the  Bear  Valley  Land  and  Water  Company  with  the  North  and  South 
Fork  Ditch  Companies,  Class  A  Certificates  of  the  Bear  Valley  Land  and  Water 
Company,  contract  between  the  Bear  Valley  Land  and  Water  Company  with  the 
Redlands-Lugonia  and  Crafton  Domestic 'Water  Company  for  200  1-7  inches  of 
water,  contract  between  the  Bear  Valley  Land  and  Water  Company  with  the 
Crafton  Water  Company  for  57  1-7  inches  of  water.  Each  certificate  is  hereby 
guaranteed  by  this  company  to  entitle  the  owner  thereof  to  receive  one  acre  foot 
of  water  per  year  (an  acre  foot  being  43,560  cubic  feet  of  water)  to  be  supplied 
from ,  and  from  no  other  source  whatever. 

The  owner  of  this  certificate  may  elect  to  cumulate  the  use  of  the  water  which 
each  certificate  entitles  him  to  receive  in  any  manner  he  desires,  provided,  how- 
ever, that  this  Company  shall  not  be  compelled  to  furnish  more  than  1-8  of  an 
inch  of  water  to  each  certificate,  at  any  one  time  (an  inch  of  water  is  equal  to  a 
flow  of  1-50  of  a  cubic  foot  of  water  per  second).  The  water  called  for  by  these 
certificates  shall  not  become  appurtenant  to  the  land  upon  which  the  same  may 
be  used,  but  these  certificates  shall  always  be  personal  property,  and  a  transfer 
hereof  shall  only  be  made  by  surrender  of  this  certificate  to  the  Company,  prop- 
erly endorsed,  and  the  issuance  by  this  Company  to  the  transferee  of  a  new 
certificate.  It  is  agreed  between  the  holder  of  this  certificate  and  this  Com- 
pany that,  on  each  certificate,  there  shall  be  paid  $1.39  on  the  first  day  of  April, 
and  $1.39  on  the  first  day  of  October,  of  each  year,  and  that  said  sums  shall  be 
due  and  payable  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Company,  at  the  office  of  the  Company, 
at  Redlands,  Cal.,  without  notice,  and  if  not  paid  within  60  days  after  the  same 
becomes  due,  this  certificate  shall  become  null  and  void,  at  the  election  of  this 
Company,  and  all  payments  shall  be  forfeited  to  the  Company  as  liquidated 
damages  for  the  non-payment  of  such  sums.  Such  forfeiture  shall  become  effect 
ual  upon  the  passage  of  a  resolution  of  the  Board  of  Directors  declaring  such 
forfeiture.  It  is  agreed  that  time  is  of  the  essence  of  this  agreement,  and  that 
by  the  receipt  of  this  certificate,  the  holder  thereof  assents  to  and  agrees  to  all 
of  the  above  stipulations. 

Secretary.  President. 


Closing  Letter.  59 


Appendix  C. 

CLOSING  LETTER. 


OTHER  IRRIGATION  DISTRICT  ENTERPRISES. 


WM.   HAM.   HALL,  STATE  IRRIGATION  ENGINEER  OF  CALIFORNIA;    1878-1888. 

CONSULTING  CIVIL  ENGINEER,  SUPERVISING  IRRIGATION  ENGINEER 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  U.  S.  GEOLOGICAL  SURVEY  ;  1889-1390. 


FLOOD    BUILDING. 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  Oct.  5th,  1891. 
J.  W.  NANCE,  ESQ., 

President  State  Association  Irrigation  Districts, 
DEAR  SIR  : 

In  transmitting  the  foregoing  report  on  the  Alessandro  Ir- 
rigation District,  it  will  not  be  amiss  for  me  to  guard  against 
possible  misapplication  of  some  of  its  paragraphs  ;  and,  hence, 
this  closing  letter  on  the  subject  of  irrigation  district  enter- 
prises in  general. 

Under  the  request  you  have  made  to  the  directors  of  the 
various  districts,  to  have  their  projects  examined  and  reported 
upon  for  information  in  financial  circles,  as  suggested  to  you 
and  others  by  certain  leading  men  in  San  Francisco  banking 
circles,  it  is  but  natural  that  the  district  officers  having  most 
confidence  in  their  enterprises,  and  with  plans  of  works  already 
well  developed,  should  be  first  to  request  that  such  projects  be 
reported  upon. 

The  Alessandro  District  is  a  case  in  point.  It  has  been  the 
third  to  make  application  for  my  services,  and  is  the  third  re- 
ported upon,  and  I  have  found  its  engineering  affairs  in  good 
condition. 

It  has  now  transpired  that  apparently  three  of  the  very  best 
districts  in  the  State  have  been  first  to  present  themselves. 
The  inference  plainly  is,  that  what  might  be  reported  of  some 
other  districts,  should  I  be  called  on  to  examine  them,  is  not 
to  be  forejudged  by  what  I  have  written  in  the  reports  thus  far 
made. 


60  Alessandro  Irrigation  District. 

As  I  have  tried  to  be  plain  and  thorough  in  treating  of  dis- 
tricts whose  enterprises  deserve  approval  and  even  praise,  in 
my  judgment,  so  shall  I  not  hesitate  to  be  equally  explicit  and 
decided  in  condemnation,  should  any  district  project  come  be- 
fore me  for  review  which  I  believe  to  be  unsound. 

It  is  to  be  remembered,  however,  that  district  officers  having 
charge  of  good  enterprises  may  not  present  them  for  examina- 
tion at  all. 

Moreover,  because  I  may  now  have  written  of  the  Central, 
the  Ferris,  or  the  Alessandro  District,  that  it  has  a  good  project, 
specially  because  of  some  certain  favorable  circumstances  or 
features,  it  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  district  enterprises 
which  have  not  all  such  advantages  are  not  good. 

The  question  of  water-supply,  particularly,  is  one  which  has 
to  be  considered  with  absolute  independence  for  each  case. 
Enough  water  per  acre  with  works  of  a  certain  class,  cultiva- 
tions of  certain  kinds,  and  soils  of  such  and  such  grades,  might 
not  be  enough  were  these  conditions  altered. 

But  water-suppl}'  problems  sometimes  admit  of  solution  in 
ways  not  at  first  apparent.  Storage  of  flood  waste  waters,  or 
even  development  of  underground  Sowings,  may  put  a  district 
project  in  first-rate  form,  where  nothing  but  conflict  with  prior 
appropriators  and  other  interests  seemed  at  first  imminent.  At 
the  same  time,  these  are  problems  to  be  studied,  and  not  an- 
swers to  be  jumped  at.  There  is  going  to  be  failure  in  instances 
of  this  sort  of  thing,  and  consequent  disaster,  at  some  places  in 
this  State. 

As  to  conflicts  over  water  rights,  of  which  so  much  is  said  and 
threatened  :  unquestionably,  a  number  of  district  enterprises 
will  have  to  incur  these.  But  the  law  anticipates  this,  and  pro- 
vides for  it.  The  question  in  each  case  will  be  as  to  the  meas- 
ure of  conflict ;  its  possible  influence  ;  its  probable  cost ;  the 
ways  of  avoidance  ;  the  outlook  for  compromise ;  its  probable 
effect  on  district  prosperity,  and,  consequently,  on  district  credit. 

I  have  now  reported  two  districts  out  of  three  as  having,  so 
far  as  I  can  ascertain,  a  unanimous  feeling  among  their  tax- 
payers in  favor  of  the  district  irrigation  work.  But  it  does  not 
follow  that  a  district  having  a  less  harmonious  and  favorably 
disposed  property  ownership  has  not  a  good  enterprise. 


Closing  Letter.  61 

Experience  with  these  developments  has  shown  rue  that 
there  is  a  class  of  people  who  resist  every  advance  step  it  pub- 
lic enterprise,  especially  when  it  comes  in  a  form  not  altogether 
familiar  to  them  ;  and  more  especially  when  it  is  under  guid- 
ance of  their  nearest  neighborhoods. 

There  are  irrigation  enterprises  in  this  State  whose  full  re- 
alization would,  under  proper  guidance  and  in  a  thorough  way, 
be  cheap  at  a  cost  over  $50  per  acre  of  lands  served  under  them. 
There  are  others  which  would  be  disastrously  dear  at  $5  per 
acre  for  water,  works  and  distribution.  It  cannot  be  judged, 
therefore,  from  the  costs  reported  as  reasonable  for  the  districts 
thus  far  examined,  what  might  be  within  bounds  for  other 
schemes. 

Several  districts  appear  in  these  foregoing  reports  as  making 
fairly  complete  and  systematic  business  and  engineering  ex- 
hibits of  their  affairs.  Other  districts  may  not  at  once,  and 
without  preparation,  be  able  to  furnish  data  for  such  exhibits. 
That  is  no  reason  why  they  may  not  have  their  engineering 
plans  and  estimates,  and  official  accounts,  put  into  equally  sat- 
isfactory form  before  calling  for  an  examination,  however. 

There  may  be  district  schemes  in  the  State  which  are  not  on 
their  face,  as  now  organized,  as  sound  as  those  thus  far  report- 
ed on.  But  such  may  be  susceptible  of  reorganization.  There 
may  be  some  other  good  project  available  for  the  lands  of  a 
district,  or  a  large  part  of  them.  And,  hence,  the  poorest  ap- 
pearing districts,  even  as  now  organized,  and  works  as  now 
projected,  should  not,  on  superficial  knowledge,  be  finally 
judged  by  comparison  with  Central,  Ferris,  or  Alessandro  Dis- 
tricts, as  these  have  been  reported. 

In  short,  there  are  many  points  of  this  kind  which  might  be 
mentioned.  Each  district  presents  its  own  problem  ;  and  it 
cannot  be  judged  from  one  report  what  another  may  or  should 
be.  I  write  this  that  I  may  not  be  misinterpreted,  and  that  I 
may  not,  through  mistaken  inference,  be  thought  to  do  injust- 
ice or  harm  in  any  quarter. 

Respectfully  yours, 

WM.  HAM.  HALL, 

Consulting  Civil  Engineer. 


62  Attorney?  Opinion. 


SAMUEL    M.    WILSON.  ) 

RUSSELL   J.    WILSON.  > 

MOUNTFORD   S.    WILSON.       ) 


LAW  OFFICES  OF  WILSON  &  WILSON, 

202  SANSOME  ST. 

SAN  FRANCISCO,  CALIFORNIA, 

November  gth,  1891. 

To  HON.  J.  W.  NANCE, 

President  State  Association  Irrigation  Districts, 

DEAR  SIR.  We  have,  at  your  request,  carefully  exam- 
ined the  proceedings  of  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Alessandro 
Irrigation  District,  taken  by  that  Board  in  the  Superior  Court 
of  the  County  of  San  Bernardino,  under  the  "  Confirmation 
Act,"  passed  by  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  California  on 
the  1 6th  day  of  March,  1889,  said  examination  having  been 
made  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  or  not  those  pro- 
ceedings conform  to  the  requirements  of  said  Act ;  and  beg 
leave  to  report  that  we  are  of  the  opinion  that  all  of  said  pro- 
ceedings are  covered  by,  and  are  in  conformity  to,  the  require- 
ments of  said  "  Confirmation  Act." 

Respectfully  yours, 

WILSON  &  WILSON. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  LOS  ANGELES 

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